Before the Rains is a 2007 Indian-British period drama film directed by Santosh Sivan.

[3] Before the Rains is set in 1930s Malabar District of the Madras Presidency of British India, against the backdrop of a growing nationalist movement.

Neelan (Rahul Bose) finds himself torn between his ambitions for the future and his loyalty to tradition when people in his village learn of an affair between his British boss and close friend Henry Moores (Linus Roache) and a married village woman Sajani (Nandita Das).

Henry's wife Laura and son Peter return from their vacation in England.

T.K tells Sajani never to come back as she is now disgraced and her presence in the village will endanger Henry's life.

A distraught Sajani finds T.K's handgun (a gift from Henry), shoots herself in the chest and dies.

Sajani's brother Manas and husband gather the men of the village to search the jungle for her.

A mob led by Sajani's husband attacks T.K., the only Indian man around with a handgun.

[5] During the 33-day shoot, Sivan endeavoured to capture the feel of cinematographer Subrata Mitra.

He was also inspired by the work of artist Raja Ravi Varma for the interiors, particularly in the use of lighting.

The costume department dressed the principal characters in contrasting colours to highlight their differing backgrounds; Moores was dressed in muted colours while Sanjani wore bright saris and jewellery.

The predominant thread of criticism in most of the reviews were that the film stuck to an old-school format and failed to stir emotion or engage the viewer.