My first film at this year’s SIFF was at the Uptown Theatre tonight. Called Before the Rains, it is the English language directorial debut of cinematographer Santosh Sivan. Set in Kerala, India in 1937, it follows the drama of an aspiring British planter, his local mistress, and his friend/partner/local-boy-gone-ambitious. There is passion, adultery, smoldering looks galore. I would like to say it is a typical romantic drama, but I did like how the ending didn’t exactly spoon-feed.

Admittedly, I only saw this film because of Linus Roache, aka ADA Michael Cutter from “Law & Order”. Second lead Rahul Bose is a very nice addition, and the adulteress Nandita Das is not hard to look at. Besides the eye candy, I know a lot of people from India, so I’m a bit partial that way.

The language of the villagers in this film is Malayalam. I was told today by one of those Indians I know a little antecdote regarding it. They say if you take a metal jug and you put 5 pebbles in it and shake it around, that is the language of the area around Mumbai (Bombay) and Chennai (Madras). Put one more pebble in, and that is the language a little further south. Put a 7th pebble in the jar and shake it around, and that is Malayalam.