A review of Before the Rains

At some levels there seems to be business wise a peaceful coexistence for now, with joint projects going forward but the British apparently getting a bigger piece of the pie, without equal sharing of the rewards.

But the surface view of this movie is idyllic, pleasant with plush landscapes and scenery and places of repose that would seem attractive for anyone and in the mix is a couple of mint elephants. Henry is the overseer from Britain of a spice plantation, and wants to commence the project of building a major road that will widen the scope of the plantation and this road he says will withstand the monsoons. There are two key workers at his house, one is T.K., and another is Sajani, an attractive youthful local lady with whom he has affection and at the least they are buddy buddy but since she is a housekeeper the relationship was pretty much unseen to outsiders. They park themselves interior to a lush waterway with mint waterfall and just in the middle of this they are spotted by two kids from above who throw rocks down. They know who she is but are unsure of the man she is with. At this point, the scenes are more so from the perspective of her, and how just where things are precisely where she wants them to be, then there is this interruption. Later we learn, she has a husband from an arranged marriage, and this is nothing like a more ideal friendly relationship, he is much more of a boss than Henry who she works for, and with Henry the cleaning rag is a complete sidebar and her work status and what she does is way in the background and the friendship is in the total forefront But things start to go awry highlighted by the return of the wife and 2 children of Henry from London to stay at least for now and for Sanjani her expectations were unrealistically raised that he could leave his oft absent wife and run away with her.

You would hazard a guess that she could find a relationship with someone else like Henry say within the local community but because of things like casts and the arranged marriage she was in, she was stuck with something much less than an idyllic relationship that at least for moments she had with Henry and once experiencing this, it meant the world to her and was her new normal So as things go wrong, it is almost like paradise ruined but there is a ring of pleasantness throughout and that includes Henry’s wife who is also quite pleasant.

T.K. is an innocent that is being put in the middle of the unraveling. There are interesting and wide contradictions in this movie. There seems to be some background in what is said that women can be quickly judged and would be in danger of their lives if they were errant on their husbands, yet when she isn't showing up for a couple of days, everybody in the area commences a through the night search of all the surrounding areas into the deep woods for her for several days. There is deep and widespread concern and even fear as to what might have happened to her. Yet these same people might have been the harsh judges in previous situations of women in particular.

In the character of T. K. there is a temperance and respect for all but also an independence from the group think that seems to take over at times

With the wider protests, there is the platform of inequality being espoused, as the grievance against the British but at the same time, their local internal mantra of outcast being the worst thing, seems to take root against justice and independent thinking when and if it might be found only by veering from the groupthink of the cast.

The wide expanse of nature and it’s beauty seem to call for freedom and beauty in love, friendship and respect with a wide girth for all types and varied wishes of those of individual preferences for both men and women, locals and foreigners and all these undercurrent had to be quelled and managed without resorting to groupthink, and the ultimate compromise against individuality that can happen with that.

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