If All We Imagine As Light didn’t get nominated by the Indian film board for the Oscars this year, then it’s a great advertisement for whatever got nominated in its place because this film is instant classic material. The kind of film that stays on your mind, lingers there for days on end. It’s a modern classic – pure poetry in motion, a multi-generational portrayal of women trapped by the confines and traditions of Mumbai and determined to tell their own story in the chaos of the city. It’s something that could only be told by Payal Kapadia, a genius at her craft – presenting an eye-opening look into these women that defy and bound by tradition to tell their own stories.
Nurse Prabha and Anu are roommates, and both work at the same hospital. Anu – played wonderfully by Diviya Prabha, brings a vast amount of soul and powerful empathy to her character that you instantly connect with – that desire to be with your boyfriend, that obsession of young love and the forbidden romance of it all; plays wonderfully amidst the judgement of the older generation; who have been bound by tradition. Through Kani Kursuti - Prahba, we get to see the remorse for a generation gone by, and the anger at being abandoned by her husband for over a decade, trapped in a loveless marriage. She can’t see other people as he’s just abandoned her – and all he cares to do is send her a rice cooker; unmarked, unnamed.
It’s cold, heartless – yet Prahba is such a kind person she gets on with her life – and is able to invest that time in saving others, be it bringing life to a man that she saves on the beach of a small village; doing everything she can to look after Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam), an older nurse who is on the verge of being kicked out of her home as she can’t find documents to prove that she lived there, or covering for Anu’s rent for a month as she spends her salary on dates with her Muslim boyfriend Shiaz (Hridu Haroon), drawing gossip from other women at the hospital. It feels like there are touches of Wong Kar-Wai in capturing the urban chaos – in order to go to her boyfriend’s house, Anu must journey by train, to an unfamiliar part of the city – but midway through she’s been told that his house is no longer available for them to use. Devastated; she’s left alone on an unfamiliar train station – subject to of course delays. It’s through the lense of Kapadia that we get this empathy – you connect with Anu the way you can with few other characters this year – her hopes, her dreams and fears at her parents’ expectations for her, as they are for so many women of that age, are laid out on screen before her. Her stubborn defiance of tradition propels All We Imagine as Light forward.
It's also just as important to recognise that of a different generation – different perspectives. For those who watch film to learn about the perspectives of others – All We Imagine as Light fits that bill nicely. You relate to these characters as you would your own friends, full of the little, quiet moments of escapism. It’s a film that moves as a series of moments, of ups and downs, of lives lived – lyrical, dreamlike storytelling in a way that few films have been able to replicate so effortlessly and so unforced – it doesn’t feel like a movie, but it feels like these characters have their own story to tell, with Mumbai itself being the fourth lead – the acting showcase for the stories they inhabit. Deeply humanist at its core – the empathetic nature of All We Imagine as Light only confirms its status as the kind of generational masterpiece that only comes around once every so often. Embrace it.
