All We Imagine As Light

Written and directed by Payal Kapadia (2024)

Reviewed by Danielle Papamichael 

Payal Kapadia has made history as the first Indian filmmaker to win the prestigious Grand Prix at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival for her debut feature, All We Imagine as Light. With a background in documentary filmmaking, Kapadia crafts a poetic narrative that captures both the restless pulse of Mumbai, contrasted with the serene, dreamlike allure of a rural coastal village. Through her intimate yet complex storytelling, she explores themes of gentrification, migration, love and loneliness. 

At the heart of the film is the story of three women—Prabha (Kani Kusruti), Anu (Divya Prabha), and Parvathy (Chhaya Kadam), each from a different generation and corner of India. Their lives intertwine amid the struggles of modern Mumbai, forging a unique bond, shaped more by urban circumstances than similarity.

Prabha, a stoic and diligent nurse, is trapped in a marriage that exists only on paper – her husband moved to Germany soon after their arranged marriage, and their communication has dwindled to near silence. That is, until one day when he unexpectedly sends her a sleek new rice cooker, stirring up long-buried emotions that she must confront.

To cope with Mumbai’s exorbitant rent, Prabha shares a flat with Anu, a much younger, carefree colleague. However, Anu frequently can’t cover her share of the rent. At the hospital, Anu drifts through her shifts, swivelling in her chair, running her stethoscope over inanimate objects, and advising female patients to persuade their partners to get vasectomies, while handing out birth control and texting her secret boyfriend, Shiaz (Hridhu Haroon). Due to their religious differences, they know their families’ disapproval will outweigh their love. After work, they scour the city for slivers of privacy, from empty parking lots to bushes surrounding parks, any place where they can steal a moment together. In Mumbai, privacy is a privilege, one they cannot afford.

Meanwhile, Prabha lends a sympathetic ear to Parvathy, a widow and cook in the hospital kitchen, who on the surface carries herself with fierce independence and resilience, but underneath grapples with loneliness and fear. As she battles eviction by property developers, her lack of official papers renders her powerless in a city that is as quick to erase her as it was to use her and her late husband’s bare hands to build it.

In Kapadia’s Mumbai, migration is central to the film, reflected as a melting pot of different people and voices. Though built by migrants from all regions of India, Mumbai has grown increasingly hostile towards them. Kapadia often includes wide shots of towering corporate buildings looming over entire communities, ready to displace them in the name of progress. In a playful act of resistance, Prabha and Parvathy hurl stones at a poster reading, ‘Class is a privilege, reserved for the privileged’, a slogan Kapadia once saw in Mumbai.

Despite Kapadia’s use of a rich jazz piano score by famed Ethiopian pianist Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou, with unpredictable rhythms that echo Mumbai’s ever-shifting nature, the film remains gentle and melancholic, at times overly so. While poignant, the narrative can feel drawn out. Its slow and observational style, perhaps a remnant of Kapadia’s documentary roots, enhances emotional depth and authenticity but lingers longer than necessary, with stretches where little happens in terms of plot.

All We Imagine as Light triumphs in its poetic, meditative portrayal of Mumbai’s working-class women and their resilience. While the film demands patience, those willing to immerse themselves will find profound emotional resonance in it. The film reflects on the desires we have for life, and the loneliness epidemic in big-city culture, while emphasising the vital importance of sisterhood and human connection.