The pot is on the boil in Southern India, 1937. Heating up are nationalist fervor among the people and passions between Henry Moores, a British plantation owner, and his maid, Sajani, a married woman from the village.

Played with little imagination by Linus Roache, familiar as the head prosecutor in TV's "Law & Order," Moores is the stereotype of a colonial exploiter.

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'Before the Rains'

2 stars = Mediocre
Ratings explained

• Starring: Linus Roache, Rahul Bose.
• Rating: PG-13 for violent content and sexuality.

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His "man," T.K., another villager, maps out a winding road through the verdant, mountainous land to allow Moores to harvest the spices that grow in the area, and hires the laborers, including an elephant, to hack out the path "before it rains," meaning monsoon season.

After the South India branch of a London bank loans the planter the money, everything, including Sajani, is falling Moores' way, but we know somehow the smug Brit will get his comeuppance in the end. Before it rains, it pours.

This international production, produced by the British-Indian team of Merchant Ivory, is a stunningly photographed melodrama directed and photographed by Santosh Sivan, a noted Indian filmmaker.

His work with actors Rahul Bose as T.K. and Nadita Das as Sajani creates powerful performances, but he seems less sure in his direction of the Anglos Roache and Jennifer Ehle as Mrs. Moores. Ehle confines her acting to a perpetual condescending smile of confusion while the ascot-wearing Roache grimaces and smokes a lot.

The over-arching story here is the conflicted loyalties of the Indians as the freedom movement takes shape. T.K. owes his job to the English, but his heart to his traditional parents.

Sajani finds solace from her brutal husband in the arms of Moores, believing -- silly lass -- that he will dump the missus for her and she can kiss the village life goodbye.

Of course, the affair goes as sour as a bad gin-and-tonic, and Sajani takes her own life in despair. Moores uses T.K. in the cover-up, forcing him to choose sides.

Road work is interrupted as the workers search for the missing Sajani, but oddly, they only seem to hunt at night in the dense forest with torches. Forget the logic; it makes for great-looking cinema.

"Before the Rains" is a handsome potboiler, made with sensitivity for the culture and struggle of the Indian people against British colonialism.

The film opens today at the Manor Theater, Squirrel Hill.