Before the Rains
Directed: Santosh Sivan
by Rowan Harrison
After a wonderful musical experience at the Coachella Music Festival on Sunday, taking in a handful of live acts, which included my favorites My Morning Jacket and of course Roger Waters and his Pink Floyd spectacle, it was back down to the Lido Theatre for the Tuesday night 6.p.m. event.
A couple of weeks ago a friend of mine let me borrow a film from India called Lagaan, a good film, and really one of the first all around Indian productions, I’ve seen. However watching it on a television set is only half the experience, compared to the big screen, yet all the poetic Indian imagery and their cultural beliefs came across fine.
Before the Rains, is another film from India and coincidently set close to the same time period as Lagaan, late 19th and early 20th century, and this time I get the whole cinematic experience of the big screen.
Director, cinematographer and writer Santosh Sivan obviously an artist of many facets, has been involved in numerous Indian productions. With an acute and sensitive eye for landscapes, still lifes, and people, he delivers us a tragic story about an adulterous love affair between a married English plantation developer and his Indian maid servant.
The southern region of India is big, green, mountainous and picturesque it is 1937, the ambitious Henry Moores is in the midst of developing a road that will allow the exportation of spices. At his side is the loyal T.K. Neelan, a hard working Indian man who straddles the road between his traditional Indian culture and English sentiment, “with mutual cooperation, comes mutual prosperity.” Neelan is a critical component and liaison with the laboring villagers who make up the working force of Moores industrialist endeavor.
Working as a maid servant, is the beautiful also married Sarjani, who is in the midst of a scandalous love affair with Mr. Moores. Now when I say scandalous I mean scandalous, with a capital “S.” Because in Indian culture the revelation of such deeds, is not just a sticky divorce, but can result in being ostracized from ones village or punishable by death, so discretion is advised.
In one of their rapturous moments and exquisitely photographed, while collecting honey in the sacred garden they are witnessed by two young village boys. Which puts the peddles in motion, as this sacrilegious sighting gets back to Sarjani’s husband, who is already suspicious of Sarjani’s time spent at the Moores ranch style home.
What even makes matters worse is that Henry’s wife Laura and their young son come back from England to stay with Henry. After an intense confrontation Sarjani leaves her husband to seek refuge with Henry only to be sent away, “we have no choice, this is the only way.” In a plea of emotional desperation Sarjani takes matters into her own hands, thus creating a downward spiral of hatred, betrayal, suspicion, and broken dreams for all parties involved.
With a screenplay by Cathy Rabin and a sound production in acting, color, and cinematography, Before the Rains, is more then just entertainment value. It’s a film that examines sacred Indian practices and traditions against an unpleasant social predicament. While examining a very common theme within the cinema, that scandalous deeds are more than just a catalyst for disaster.