Mumbai creates a clamorous rush in the opening moments of Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light; the heat, humidity, and bustle of everyday life captivate. We hear the voices of anonymous, faceless residents who describe how they managed to find a place in this metropolis, where many Indian languages coexist side by side. The eye effortlessly enters a local train to focus for a brief moment on the evening’s female commuters. Anu (Divya Prabha) and Prabha (Kani Kusruti), the main characters, are introduced to us here. From this point on, Kapadia will take us on a trip with them that is so wonderfully and empathetically made that it hits you like a sudden deluge.
Prabha and Anu both work at the same hospital and are from Kerala. A bit later, it was revealed that they are also housemates. Young and vivacious, Anu often leaves work early to meet her love interest, Shiaz (Hridhu Haroon), a Muslim teenager who lives nearby. Mumbai may be a big city, but it also unintentionally shows up like a watchful small bird because of her interfaith romance, which makes her a topic of discussion among the hospital’s other nurses. In a stunning scene, Anu sends her boyfriend kisses via the clouds, while the rain falls like a prayer. It seems as though the city is working to bring these lovers together in some way.
The head nurse, Prabha, is quiet and assertive. She chastises Anu for acting carelessly. Prabha is shocked to receive a surprise package in the shape of a rice cooker from Germany, where her husband departed for business. She has been speaking with him for a year. What is meant by this present? It is a moment of heartbreaking longing as she cradles the pressure cooker after a long day of hard work.
Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam, who was also excellent in Laapataa Ladies) completes the trio of women. She is a middle-aged hospital employee who is being threatened to vacate her flat by real estate developers who wish to build a building there. Parvaty, a widow who has lived in Mumbai for more than 20 years, lacks the documentation proving that she calls this place her home. After a chase, she loses and decides to go back to her coastal hamlet of Ratnagiri. While Anu and Prabha assist their colleague with the move, they are rather bewildered by Mumbai.
Time seems to slow down here as the three women discover that they have more freedom to rekindle their desires. Anu is experiencing a strong desire to join Shiaz, who has also followed her here. Prabha is left looking for a reason as Parvaty finally starts to repair her life. With the aid of Clément Pinteaux’s concentrated editing and Ranabir Das’ evocative photography, Kapadia attentively observes Prabha and provides her with a hypnotic moment of catharsis—a scene so profound and poignant that it must be seen to be believed. With a performance that is remarkably nuanced and deep, Kani Kusruti masterfully captures the subtleties of the film’s more metaphysical inclinations. Beneath the restraint she appropriately maintains, her face registers a thousand untold stories. Watching her is arresting.
In the realm of mainstream Indian cinema, Kapadia’s portrayal of women is a shock to the system. Here, the women are not constantly preoccupied with the concerns of appeasing the male hero’s gestures or speaking incredulously angry tones. Extremes do not exist. These ladies are unique due to their deep interiority of desires and fears, and they live just enough. They are just people, not heroines. Their daily lives, the candid portrayal of their body functions, such as urine, and the discussion of menstruation and placentas are all examples of resistance.
Through the use of loose narrative lines to link these three ladies, All We Imagine As Light becomes a lyrical analysis of India’s fast urbanization—a place that both connects and alienates. The delicate and unexpected sisterhood that forms between these three women serves as the film’s fulcrum. According to Kapadia, the hope for survival amid this enormous tapestry of beauty and fear may be illuminated by the camaraderie of these three generations of women.
Mumbai, the city at the core of this social criticism, has such a complex and unique personality that it is almost hard to capture it in a single viewpoint. Parvaty is brutally forced to choose another place by the same city that gives Anu the warmth of a lover’s embrace. A place with such a contemporary perspective but so many different facets of gender, class, and religion. Kapadia presents Mumbai with all of its concessions, hypocrisies, and restlessness via a precisely calibrated lens that avoids romanticism.
Unquestionably the year’s best movie, All We Imagine As Light is a milestone production. Kapadia portrays herself as a strong artist, a unique and remarkable director to keep an eye on. Given how both directors incorporate an openness to the environment and unorthodox narrative frameworks, her impressionistic frames may evoke the magnificent hues of Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s work.
The relationship between the political and the personal is Kapadia’s central undercurrent. Shiaz and Anu must have a deeper affection. Parvaty needs a place to call home. Prabha needs to persevere. She must recognise her inner brightness.
