Before the Rains

Before the Rains (2007)

Set in southern India in the late 1930s, this provocative tale traces the story of three people caught in an inexorable web of forbidden romance and dangerous secrets. After a British spice planter falls in love with his alluring servant, an idealistic young man finds himself torn between his ambitions and his family, his village and his past.

Date of release
2007-09-07
TMDB
4.8 / 10 (15)
Runtime
1h 38m
Genres
Drama, Romance
Director
Santosh Sivan

Casting

Interesting facts

Before the Rains is a 2007 period drama film directed by Santosh Sivan. The film is adapted from a story from the 2001 anthology Israeli film Asphalt Zahov. Before the Rains is set in the 1930s Malabar District of the Madras Presidency of British India, against the backdrop of a growing nationalist movement. An idealistic young Indian man, T.K. Neelan finds himself torn between his ambitions for the future and his loyalty to tradition when people in his village learn of an affair between his British boss and close friend Henry Moores and a married village woman Sajani.

Production

Santosh Sivan decided to make a film of Danny Verete's segment "Red Roofs" (from Asphalt Zahov) after producer Doug Mankoff introduced him to the film. Concluding that the story was "timeless and universal", Sivan changed the story's setting to a Nayar community in 1930s Kerala, India. He felt a special affinity with the area as he was born and raised in Kerala. The film was initially titled Road to the Sky.

During the 33-day shoot, Sivan endeavoured to capture the feel of cinematographer Subrata Mitra. He used mainly 16mm and 18mm lenses to achieve the film's panoramic wide shots which he recorded in 1.85:1 aspect ratio on Kodak Vision2 film stock. He was also inspired by the work of artist Raja Ravi Varma for the interiors, particularly in the use of lighting.

Several complications were involved in filming in the area. Since much of the film involves road construction, the production team found an abandoned road and completed it at different stages in three different areas to allow them to shoot all three building stages simultaneously. For one scene Das's character was supposed to float down a river.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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