When DOP holds the directorial reigns one can expect a visual feast nothing short of excellence. And precisely that what you are in for "Before the Rains". Every scene seems to hand-picked and aesthetically delivered. Brillaince perhaps would be an understatement for the visual poetry.
The plot weaves a story of love, passion, friendship, loyalty and greed amidst the struggle for freedom from the British Raj neatly showcasing the customs and traditions of Gods own country, Kerala.
Santosh Sivan gets down to business straight away and while the visuals keeps the audience glued, the same cannot be said about the plot/ narrative which seems to give away. Perhaps screenplay needed further cementing.
Performances::
Ψ Rahul Bose:: Needs no intro, he is might in his own right. Manages to pull off the various layers of the role effectively. His character seems to be inspired from Karna in Mahabharata.
Ψ Nandita Das:: Her role was smaller than expected and needed more screen time to establish the character.
Ψ Linus:: He was good, though has immense scope to make a dent.
Ψ Jennifer:: Now literally stealing the thunder would be the apt idiom to compliment her performance and her character backs it up nicely.
Ψ The other stalwarts from Malayalam cinema were confined to character roles and perhaps minuscule.
