11/28

In Mumbai, sister Prabha’s daily life is thrown off track when she receives an unexpected gift from her estranged husband. Her younger roommate Anu tries in vain to find a place in the city where she can be intimate with her boyfriend. Director Payal Kapadia and the cast of All We Imagine As Light come together to share the most heartwarming reactions from Cannes and more! The first Indian film to win the prestigious Grand Prix at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, this film portrays many of the challenges faced by single women in Bombay and highlights their resilience. All the women featured here are nurses in the same hospital, but that’s where the similarities end, as each has her own specific problems and, one might say, solutions. Desire, fear, regret and brazen patience are the emotions that constantly alternate as the story quietly unfolds. Probably the biggest asset is the script, which offers unusually rich and thoughtful dialogue between the characters. The plot, in all its intensity, seems to be enough to provide a framework for conversations in which people have the opportunity to be unusually honest and unselfconscious with each other, even when lying or posing. The acting is equally excellent and is in no way inferior to the level of the script – there are no false notes, although there are some irritating open ends. The photography and editing also manage quite well to create a thoughtful and somewhat distant atmosphere that complements the quiet intensity of the characters’ interactions. This distance is reinforced in several places where the film seems to contain documentary elements, or at least creates such a feeling. I was not always keen on the music and the way it is evoked, but that is a minor criticism that many may not share. I disagree with another critic’s claim that this film was intended as “awards bait”. In my opinion, there is too much heart and honesty in this film to be considered cynical or manipulative – certainly no more so than any other film that tries to tell an important story in a compelling and beautiful way. And this film takes a lot of risks that I can’t imagine would go down well in an increasingly sectarian and puritanical India. I highly recommend All We Imagine as Light.