Runtime: 1 hr 38 mins
Synopsis: Forbidden romance, empire, and culture clash all lie at the heart of this drama. In 1930s India, Britain's reign is beginning to lose its hold on the region. In the midst of this turmoil, a British man (Linus Roache) embarks on an affair with an Indian woman (Nandita Das), while one of the men in... [More]
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Linus Roache, Rahul Bose, Nandita Das, Jennifer Ehle, John Standing
India has rarely looked so beautiful onscreen. Against the anguish of his human characters, director Santosh Sivan juxtaposes a tranquil, green world in the hills of the southwestern state of Keralain 1937, 10 years before independence.
Don't be deceived by pretty pictures. Before the Rains has a whiff of the thriller about it.
When the rains in Before the Rains finally arrive, there's nothing to cleanse, no real dirt to wash away -- not with history already so neatly packaged and polished to a dull shine.
This is a story where passion is political and, as with all political indiscretions, the coverup is worse than the crime.
[Santosh] Sivan makes it all quite beautiful with verdant imagery and tastefully melodramatic direction, but at the cost of emotional and social ambiguities
It might have been more convincing if it had emphasized personalities rather than types.
Unfortunately, the parade of consequences brought on by the affair has little emotional substance.
[Bose's T.K.] is both an observer and a reluctant participant in the tragedy, and in Bose's performance we see the intellectual awakening and politicization of a young man.
Well-mannered, high-minded and, despite its potentially inflammatory dramatic arc, curiously tepid.
Producer Ismail Merchant died in 2005, but Merchant Ivory's stuffy tradition of quality lives on.
Top Critic
One of those dopey romantic epics in which many lives are ruined with gorgeous scenery in the background.
A predictable patchwork of forbidden romance, English arrogance, a gun given as a gift, suicide, corruption, deception, rising Indian nationalism and a short-lived chase through the jungle.
There is something especially insulting about a very adult movie told in very childish terms.
Before the Rains is never less than compelling, but never more than adequately realized.
With all these volatile emotions at play, Before The Rains should percolate like The Postman Always Rings Twice, but… well… it's a Merchant-Ivory production, after all.
It's standard soap opera dramaturgy in wrinkled linens, loincloths and saris.
The problem isn't just that the material is cliched and vaguely offensive....It's more that the plot is incredibly predictable, the score is manipulative and the denouement completely unsatisfying.
Will the rains come? Aye, they will -- and so too the colonialist’s comeuppance. Although by the time it rolls around many will be past caring.
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