Before the Rains (2007)

Director:

Santosh Sivan

Writers (WGA):

Cathy Rabin (screenplay)
Dan Verete (2001 film "Asphalt Zahov")

Release Date:

25 July 2008 (UK)

Genre:

Drama | Romance | Thriller

Tagline:

Passion has its price.

Plot:

A English spice baron settles in South India during the waning years of the Raj.

Plot Keywords:

India | British | Kerala India | British Raj | Spice

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Linus Roache	...	Henry Moores
Rahul Bose	...	T. K. Neelan
Nandita Das	...	Sajani
Jennifer Ehle	...	Laura Moores
Leopold Benedict	...	Peter Moores
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Dr. Ambikathmajan	...	T.K.'s Headmaster
Indrajith	...	Manas
Lakshmi Krishnamurthy	...	T.K.'s mom
Lal	...	Rajat (as Lal Paul)
John Standing	...	Charles Humphries
Thilakan	...	T.K.'s Father
Ejji K. Umamahesh	...	Inspector Sampath

Directed by
Santosh Sivan

Writing credits (WGA)
Cathy Rabin		(screenplay)
Dan Verete		(2001 film "Asphalt Zahov") (as Dany Vert)

Produced by
Mark Burton	....	producer
Steven Cohen	....	associate producer
Howard Frumes	....	executive producer
Paul Hardart	....	producer
Tom Hardart	....	producer
Doug Mankoff	....	producer
Pauline Piechota	....	co-producer
Ashok Rao	....	executive producer
Mubina Rattonsey	....	co-producer
Andrew Spaulding	....	producer
Jessica Stamen	....	co-producer
Milind Vereker	....	line producer
Jane Villiers	....	executive producer
Amotz Zakai	....	co-producer

Original Music by
Mark Kilian

Cinematography by
Santosh Sivan		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Steven Cohen
A. Sreekar Prasad

Casting by
Daniel Hubbard		(as Dan Hubbard)

Production Design by
Sunil Babu

Costume Design by
Satheesh S.B.		(as S.B. Satheesan)

Production Management
Ian Kennedy	....	post-production supervisor

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Kamal K.M.	....	first assistant director (as Kamal Mohammed)
Ritesh Menon	....	second second assistant director

Sound Department
Caoimhe Doyle	....	foley artist
Brian Dunlop	....	assistant sound editor
David Esparza	....	supervising sound effects editor
Robert Jackson	....	supervising dialogue editor
John Ross	....	sound re-recording mixer
Paul Schwartz	....	sound mixer
Leslie Shatz	....	supervising sound editor
Melissa Sherwood Hofmann	....	sound re-recording mixer
Don White	....	foley recording mixer

Visual Effects by
Rachel Clement	....	digital cleanup artist

Camera and Electrical Department
Alphonse Roy	....	second unit photographer
Anjuli Shukla	....	first assistant camera

Casting Department
Kelly Valentine Hendry	....	casting associate

Editorial Department
Dennis Little	....	digital intermediate production coordinator
Jon Pehlke	....	on-line editor
Sarah Priestnall	....	production supervisor: digital intermediate
Steven Ramirez	....	assistant editor
Kurt Tuffendsam	....	digital intermediate project manager

Music Department
Marcus Barone	....	producer: soundtrack album
Christine Bergren	....	music clearances
Roman Kovalik	....	assistant to composer
Jonathan Schultz	....	score consultant
Matt Shelton	....	music editor
Casey Stone	....	music scoring mixer

Other crew
Prince Bagdasarian	....	film and high definition coordinator
Maryann C. Fondulas	....	u.s. accountant
J.P. Pettinato	....	production consultant
Arturo Lopez Uscanga	....	scanning manager

Thanks
Ivan Padmachandran	....	thanks
Alpita Patel	....	special thanks
Vijay Venkataramanan	....	thanks

Production Companies

• Merchant Ivory Productions (presents) (as Merchant Ivory)
• Adirondack Pictures (in association with)
• Excalibur Pictures (in association with)
• Santosh Sivan Productions (in association with)
• Echo Lake Entertainment

Distributors

• Roadside Attractions (2008) (USA) (theatrical)
• Lions Gate Films Home Entertainment (2008) (USA) (DVD)
• Metrodome Distribution (2008) (UK) (all media)
• Les Films Séville (2008) (Canada) (theatrical) (French-speaking region)
• Maximum Film Distribution (2008) (Canada) (theatrical) (English-speaking region)
• FS Film Oy (2009) (Finland) (DVD)
• Paradox Entertainment Group (2008) (Canada) (DVD)
• Seville Pictures (2008) (Canada) (DVD)

Other Companies

• 424  sound re-recording
• Line 21 Media Services Ltd.  combined dialogue, continuity & spotting list
• Wildfire Studios  sound re-recording

Also Known As:

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for violent content and a scene of sexuality

Runtime:

98 min

Country:

USA | India | UK

Language:

English | Malayalam

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:PG-13 | Canada:14A (Manitoba) | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PG (Alberta/British Columbia/Ontario) | UK:12 | Australia:M | Finland:K-13 | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

India

Company:

Merchant Ivory Productions

Goofs:

Anachronisms: The story takes place in 1937, but the pickup truck seen throughout the film is a 1950's Jeepster truck.

Movie Connections:

Remake of Asphalt Zahov (2001)

Rains and Dust

I had to hunt down where this film was playing - it was 70 miles away and I took a road trip to go catch it. The reviews have been so good, it is made by Sivan, has Nandita Das AND Rahul Bose so it seemed well worth the effort. Unfortunately I feel really let down by the film. It seems specifically made to cater to a Western audience and is less Indian than Darjeeling Limited! Sivan tells an engaging enough tale that the 90+ minutes do not hang heavy on your hands but the characters are not well etched at all. I went in expecting an Indian Ink (Stoppard) or a Passage to India (EM Forster), at the very least I was hoping for a Heat and Dust, but this is lower than that Ruth Praver Jhabvala fare.

Nandita Das plays Sajani, a woman who works as maidservant to the Moores family headed by Linus Roache as Henry Moores. While the wife (Jennifer Ehle) and son are away, Henry gets into an adulterous love affair with Sajani. With the help of TK, a local village man who is English educated, Henry is trying to build a road to improve the spice trade. Sajani is married to a brutish fellow, he does find out and all hell breaks loose. There is the obligatory tragic ending but you watch it from the outside with clinical detachment. The white man is a spineless fellow, the white woman a large hearted up-standing woman (like the white women in Lagaan, RDB).

Nandita Das has a meaningless role that she cannot sink her teeth into, Rahul Bose is equally wasted in the role of a man who is neither fish nor fowl, but caught between two cultures. So much could have been made of this character. Linus Roach plays the gutless white man exceedingly well, you hate him and yet you also know where he is coming from. Jennifer Ehle is wonderful in a small role as the woman full of empathy.

What Sivan does best is showcase the canvas, the photography is absolutely stunning. The locales are full of magic and every shimmering dew drop, the frog jumping into the pond, the mist rising from the tree tops, is all magically captured by his lens. Where he loses out is in etching the characters better, and having more to the story itself. This is a thin tale. He also fails at extracting the best from his stellar cast. Western audiences will love this tale of "forbidden love" - parts of it more graphically shown than we are used to seeing, the spineless British man, the Indian man learning the gentleman's game from the gentleman Henry, and in fact out-gentlemaning Henry in the end. I am sure they will also find most interesting some of the bizarre and arcane rituals that the "tribals' were practicing! I am disappointed because this one could have been so much more.