41/26
In Mumbai, nurse Prabha’s daily routine is disrupted when she receives an unexpected gift from her ex-husband. Her younger roommate, Anu, tries in vain to find a place in the city to stay near her boyfriend. Director Payal Kapadia and the cast of All We Imagine As Light reunite to share the film’s most moving reactions from Cannes and more! The first Indian film to win the prestigious Grand Prix at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, the film dramatizes the many challenges faced by single women living in Mumbai and highlights their resilience. All the women here are nurses in the same hospital, but that’s where the similarities end, as each has their own specific set of problems and solutions. The ever-changing emotions as the story quietly unfolds are desire, fear, regret and intense patience. Perhaps the greatest asset is the script, which offers extraordinarily rich and thoughtful dialogue between the characters. The amount of action in the story seems to provide a platform for conversations that allow for unusual honesty and vulnerability with each other, even when they lie or pretend. The acting is uniformly excellent and lives up to the script—there are no false notes, but there are some fascinating loose ends. The cinematography and editing are also quite adept at creating a reflective, somewhat distant atmosphere that complements the quiet intensity of the characters’ interactions. The separation is amplified at several points where the film incorporates documentary elements, or certainly creates that feeling. I didn’t always like the music and how it drew me in, but that’s a minor issue that many people might not share. I dispute another reviewer’s claim that this film was intended as “awards bait.” In my opinion, this film has too much heart and honesty to be categorized as cynical or manipulative—certainly no more than any other film that tries to tell an important story in a captivating and beautiful way. And this film takes risks that I don’t imagine would resonate in an increasingly sectarian and puritanical India. I highly recommend All We Imagine as Light.
