Santosh Sivan’s ‘Before the Rains’ is worth a watch!

Firstly ‘Before the Rains’ lives up to the expectations set for it, well, for it isn’t easy to be an amalgamation of being a Merchant Ivory production and a Santosh Sivan film.Secondly, it excels as it marks the English language debut of the critically acclaimed Sivan.

Set in the 1930’s southern India, against the backdrop of a growing nationalist movement, the film features the outstanding Nandita Das and Rahul Bose. The film has Mr Moores (played by Roache), as an Englishman who plans to build a road across a hill before the monsoon, which he believes will make him rich as people will use it to transport spices. Helping him in this endeavour is local villager and friend TK (Bose).

Nandita Das plays the lead character of Sanjani, a village girl who defies the tradition and culture and falls in love with a white man played by British actor Linus Roache. Rahul Bose’s character is that of a man torn between his ambitions for the future and his loyalty to the past when people in his village learn of an affair between his British boss Mr Moores (Linus Roache) and Sanjani (Nandita Das).

Things go awry when one morning two village boys spot Sajini and Mr Moores making love by the waterfall. The news reaches the ears of Sajini`s husband, who beats her up severely. Sajini escapes to Mr Moores`s house where she seeks love and refuge, but Mr Moores feels threatened and wants her to go away.

Santosh Sivan`s craft as a breathtaking cinematographer is at its full display. All the lead actors prove their mettle with striking performances.

This one’s surely worth a watch.