No Trailblazing In 'Rains' ' Jungle

"Before the Rains," director Santosh Sivan's drama set in 1937 India, is a hodgepodge in the Raj -- a predictable patchwork of forbidden romance, English arrogance, a gun given as a gift, suicide, corruption, deception, rising Indian nationalism and a short-lived chase through the jungle.

It's a film where characters are always engaged in something symbolic, whether building roads to forge a modern India or discoursing about the healing power of water after committing adultery. There's also a mention of "sacred" dragonflies, an insect supposedly inhabited by our spirits after death.

So: Guess which road will not get built amid the boiling drama. Guess if we'll see lots of water, including the much-mentioned monsoon. Guess if a dragonfly will make a few well-timed cameos.

Sivan, a veteran cinematographer, won justifiable praise for his 1999 Tamil-language film, "The Terrorist," about a young woman sent on a suicide assassination mission. But the seemingly larger budget of "Before the Rains" -- it is "presented by" Merchant Ivory Productions -- seems to prove that more does not always mean more.

The new film has several Merchant Ivory hallmarks, namely convincing use of period clothing, cars, hairdos and music. And Sivan -- given his terrific eye for cinematographic detail -- uses far more restraint than expected in the use of plush landscape to establish mood. The film starts with lovely images of early morning fog rolling through the lush hills of Kerala, in southern India, but then moves swiftly to the characters engineering the drama.

There's the married English planter Henry Moores (Linus Roache), seeking to make his fortune building a jungle road. There's his beautiful Indian housemaid, Sajani (Nandita Das), who is married to a thuggish villager and believes the Englishman's promises of a future together.

They have been trysting for a while, but the first the audience beholds of their sweaty affair is when -- eye-rolling symbolism alert -- they spirit into the jungle under the guise of looking for honey from a beehive.

The film introduces another central character, Moores's man Friday. He is an English-educated villager, T.K. Narayan (Rahul Bose), who grows increasingly conflicted about his allegiances. He helps Moores build the jungle road and dispose of Sajani's body after she kills herself in a moment of romantic despair.

She screams at Moores, "I have risked everything, my honor, my life. And what have you risked?"

Does he love her? she wants to know.

No.

Bang.

The most honestly dramatic moment of the film occurs when the villagers, led by Sajani's brother, suspect Narayan of being complicit in her death. The matter is settled before a local shaman who devises a test of truth: Lick a scalding spoon three times, rinse, and if Narayan's tongue is spotless, so is his conscience.

It's tense, riveting.

The film is about honor as much as anything. Sajani does not want to be the village outcast. Moores wants to prove to his wife (the Tony Award-winning stage actress Jennifer Ehle) that he is as financially worthy as her rich father. And Narayan must regain his family honor after casting his lot with Moores, a corrupting relationship that acts as parable about English masters and their Indian subjects.

Though tinged with politics, the film's potboiler aspects remind the viewer of the exotic-locale melodramas churned out by Hollywood studios in the 1940s. Bette Davis in "The Letter," killing her lover on a Malay rubber plantation, pops to mind. But "Before the Rains," which often struggles to keep its head above water balancing many themes, is not nearly as fun.

Before the Rains (98 minutes, at Landmark's E Street Cinema) is rated PG-13 for violent content and a scene of sexuality.