Acting honours go to Bose, his face an eloquently shifting register of shame, calculation and sympathy.
Comment
07/25/08
Before the Rains (2008)
46 %
Reviews Counted: 50 Fresh: 23 Rotten:27 Average Rating: 5.2/10
Consensus:
While lushly photographed and politically suggestive, this soapy melodrama lacks emotional resonance.
Rated: 12A
Runtime: 1 hr 38 mins
Theatrical Release: 25-07-2008
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
Director: Santosh Sivan
Screenwriter: Cathy Rabin
Producer: Doug Mankoff, Andrew Spaulding, Paul Hardart, Tom Hardart, Mark Burton
Composer: Mark Kilian
Screenwriter: Cathy Rabin
Producer: Doug Mankoff, Andrew Spaulding, Paul Hardart, Tom Hardart, Mark Burton
Composer: Mark Kilian
Reviews
Feels as though it should be a compelling drama, yet it somehow simmers along rather frustratingly with only a couple of moments of genuine tension.
07/25/08
The movie is prettily done in a fairly obvious way, but there's little insight into the emerging nationalist movement, which remains at best a shimmering backdrop in soft focus.
07/25/08
Top Critic
The film is fervently acted and well shot, and Das provides a powerful, emotional force, but there is something a little clanky about the whole project...
07/25/08
Top Critic Top Critic
In another age this Merchant Ivory production would have led the week's reviews. Now it'll be lost to all the superheroes.
07/24/08
Top Critic
While the characters sometimes feel roughly drawn, the casting is spot on.
07/22/08
Top CriticClick to read the article
09/22/07
A tale of forbidden love, customs, rising nationalism and epic tragedy - exuding Merchant Ivory quality in every frame.
07/19/08
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.
06/20/08
Don't be deceived by pretty pictures. Before the Rains has a whiff of the thriller about it.
06/20/08
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.
06/20/08
This is a story where passion is political and, as with all political indiscretions, the coverup is worse than the crime.
06/12/08
[Santosh] Sivan makes it all quite beautiful with verdant imagery and tastefully melodramatic direction, but at the cost of emotional and social ambiguities
06/01/08
It might have been more convincing if it had emphasized personalities rather than types.
05/30/08
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News
Santosh Sivan Goes Home Before the Rains
posted by May 08, 2008
For Before the Rains, his English-language directorial debut, cinematographer Santosh Sivan went back to his roots...
posted by May 08, 2008
For Before the Rains, his English-language directorial debut, cinematographer Santosh Sivan went back to his roots...
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