I saw this with Sarah last Thursday. As it was another premiere, the Director, Santosh Sivan and one of the main actors, Linus Roache were there to introduce and then take questions afterwards.
I really enjoyed this film. It was a tragic story of greed, passion, betrayal set in a remote village in Kerala.
On the surface it is about a plantation owner, Moores (played by Linus Roache) and his affair with housekeeper, Sajani (Nandita Das). It is also about the plantation Moores is developing to increase not just his prosperity but to the whole area around him by creating jobs, building hospitals and schools etc. What I really felt it was about was the development of the character TK, the right-hand man of Moores. He at first works loyally with Moores as he develops his plantation and then slowly but surely realises he cannot balance his modern and traditional life. Throughout the film he is seen as looking up to and even idealising the character of Moores and then as the film and story develops realising that he does in fact embody everything that he should hate about the British Empire. The idealism Moores is aspiring to goes out the window as he reveals his true nature under pressure and this is a great disappointment to TK and rightly so!
It was beautifully filmed and in the interview Sivan commented that he wanted the location to be considered a character in the film – this I believe was successfully achieved. The scenery and countryside was truly breath-taking. You also got a real sense of what it might have been like to live in India as a Brit and even as an Indian in that time. The story was relatively simple but very well executed. It has a very real message and was really quite tragic but I did not leave the theatre depressed or heavy hearted.
Also – very pleased that at the end I got a chance to meeting Santosh Sivan – if briefly – and say thank you and that I enjoyed the film very much.
Tags: Before the Rains, EIFF, film, review, Santosh Sivan
