Before The Rains (Merchant Ivory/Lionsgate DVD)

 

Picture: B     Sound: B     Extras: C     Film: B-

 

 

Under Merchant Ivory productions comes Santosh Sivan’s 2007 film Before the Rains, which feels very much like a typical Merchant and Ivory production, even if they are not directing the film.  The film is set during the 1930’s in southern India where there is a growing movement of the nationalist party.  A young Indian man finds himself caught between his ambitious and prosperous-looking future, but also his loyalty to his village and the affair that he knows about that involves his boss and a village woman, this type of knowledge could be catastrophic in the wrong hands. 

 

Unfortunately like many of the more average Merchant/Ivory productions this one fails to really capture us throughout and lags for more moments than it should.  We continue to wait for the payoff, but it never really ties together well enough to really make sense or feel ‘right’.  The acting is particularly good with solid production values and cinematography, but just can’t get the story told with the ease and intelligence that under better direction would be possible. 

 

The film is presented in a 1.78 X 1 anamorphic transfer that does the film justice and looks very good for DVD.  The scenery in this film is the real highlight and I would love to see this film on Blu-ray.  Video black is appropriately deep and dark, while whites look solid as well with a great contract level and colors are vivid and sharp.  There are two audio options, Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0, both are decent for being Dolby mixes, but a DTS mixed would have been great.  Since the film is mostly dialogue-heavy this is never a huge issue, although the films score always feels compressed. 

 

A great find, even with some limitations with the story it’s worthy of discovery.  Also check out our review for Merchant/Ivory’s A Room With A View:

 

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/6219/A+Room+With+A+View+(HD

 

 

-   Nate Goss