42/37
In Mumbai, nurse Prabha’s routine is disrupted when she receives an unexpected gift from her estranged husband. Her young roommate, Anu, tries unsuccessfully 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 touching reactions from Cannes and beyond! 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 set of problems and, one might say, solutions. Desire, fear, regret and stoic patience are the emotions that constantly shift as the story unravels. Perhaps the best part is the script, which offers incredibly rich and thoughtful dialogues between the characters. The amount of action in the plot seems to provide enough of a scaffolding for conversations in which people have the space to be exceptionally honest with each other and without reservation, even when they are lying or putting on a show. The acting is uniformly excellent and on par with the script – there are no false notes, although there are a few tantalizing loose ends. The cinematography and editing also do a pretty good job of creating a thoughtful and slightly detached atmosphere, complementing the quiet intensity of the character interactions. The detachment is reinforced at a few points where the film seems to have documentary elements or certainly does give that impression. I wasn’t always a fan of the music and the way it was played, but that’s a minor quibble that many may not share. I disagree with another reviewer’s claim that this film was intended to be “award bait.” In my opinion, this film is too honest and sincere to be called 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 and I don’t think it will go down well in increasingly sectarian and puritanical India. I highly recommend “All We Imagine as Light.”
