Thiruvananthapuram, July 30 (IANS) Acclaimed Indian cinematographer-turned-director Santosh Sivan's English language period film 'Before the Rains' interspersed with Malayalam and Tamil dialogues, which opened in 18 theatres across Britain, has turned out to be a hit.

Released in Britain Friday, the film has got rave reviews despite the fact that 20 percent of the dialogues in the period movie are in Malayalam and Tamil.

'It is great to see a English-Malayalam movie running in main theatres in the West,' Sivan told IANS.

He added that the biggest gainer through the film is Kerala.

'People have now begun asking in details about the location and the beauty of the place has attracted many who wish to see the place,' Sivan said.

The film turned out to be a big hit in the US when it was released in May.

Set in the 1930s, the 98-minute film was shot in the picturesque hill station at Munnar, about 300 kilometres from here, and had its world premiere at the 32nd Toronto International Film Festival in September last year.

Written by the late Cathy Rabin, it is set in southern India against the backdrop of a growing nationalist movement and explores the turmoil of a man, divided between two worlds and the choices he makes to gain his freedom and embrace his true identity.

T.K. Neelan (Rahul Bose), an idealistic young Indian man educated in the West, finds himself torn between his ambitions and loyalty when the local villagers learn of an adulterous affair between his boss Henry Moores (Linus Roache), a British planter striving to build a road to expand his spice business, and his married Indian housemaid Sajani (Nandita Das).

Roache, who attracted media attention in the BBC television series 'Seaforth' (1994), went on record saying his work in 'Before the Rains' was his best ever in his two decades in the film industry.