CINEMA: Before The Rains

Passage to India is probably the most famous of the group of films dealing with the last days of the Raj and the sometimes fraught interracial relationships forged between British colonialists and the indigenous population.  Before The Rains does not really add anything to this genre, but it does possess a sensual beauty that could have you longing for a trip to the subcontinent.

Kerala, 1937, and ambitious, idealistic British planter Henry Moores (Linus Roche) has decided the way to ensure a prosperous future for his family is to build a road high up into the mountains in order to get his spices to market more easily. He is helped in his endeavours by his Indian overseer TK (Rahul Bose), who feels great loyalty to Moores. But that loyalty is sorely tested when Moores’ affair with his Indian housemaid Sajani (Nandita Das) is discovered.

Moores is married with a child and his romance with Sajani could ruin his comfortable existence, while Sajani has even more to lose including her honour and, ultimately, her life. Will TK choose to back his master, or will his bonds to his people and his own culture force him to abandon Moores?

It’s a small, intimate story, which is nicely directed by Santosh Sivan (The Terrorist), but it takes an age to get to the point and so comes over as rather static. However the scenery is utterly sumptuous, showing an unspoilt rural India that is lush, green and somehow rather alien.      Dee Pilgrim