In certain movies, the setting is just as critical to the overall experience as the performances, script, or direction. I don’t think Call Me By Your Name would’ve enamored audiences so deeply if it weren’t set in the hazy hum and lush greenery of Crema, Italy. We’ve seen many movies and shows in recent years described as “love letters” to certain cities: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Chunking Express, Midnight in Paris, and Steve McQueen’s Blitz. But it’s rare for us to see a specific place used as the antagonist of the story.
Payal Kapadia’ All We Imagine as Light opens with a montage of the people of Mumbai, constantly in transit, making their way through the city all with tired, sullen expressions across their faces. Voiceovers from different people let us hear their opinions on their home city, with one man saying “I’m afraid to call it my home.” Kapadia’s vision of Mumbai is a hope vacuum, where people are overworked, the poor are kept separate from the rich, and there is nothing anyone can do about it. The film, while it does end on a hopeful note, is quite pessimistic in its views of Mumbai, as if the only chance at happiness depends on your means to escape from the city. It’s a story of disconnection, and how, despite how impervious we try to make ourselves, we all share the very basic human need of interpersonal relationships, whatever form they come in.
'All We Imagine as Light' Is a Story of Human Connection
Following its win at Cannes for the Gran Prix award, All We Imagine as Light is a somber, slow drama that follows Prabha (Kani Kusruti), a serious and reserved nurse living and working in Mumbai, as her husband (who she met in an arranged marriage) lives in Germany, avoiding her calls and making up for it by sending a rice cooker with no note. Prabha lives with Anu (Divya Prabha), a younger and livelier nurse who is hiding her relationship with a young Muslim man, Shiaz (Hridhu Haroon) as her parents want to arrange for her to wed a fellow Hindu. It’s a bleak existence for both of them, and this has formed a hard outer layer in Prabha, who lashes out at Abu when she’s overly friendly with a doctor who clearly likes Prabha. Their colleague, Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam), is being pushed out by gangsters so they can turn her home into apartments for the wealthy.
Every facet of the city brings nothing but disappointment to these characters. For most of the film,Kapadiawill follow the cast as they make their way through the city, with the background almost always unfocused. A voiceover refers to a constant feeling of impermanence and the themes of displacement and transience bleed into every frame. Anu’s only solace is her clandestine meetings with Shiaz, while Prabha rejects the doctor’s advances despite feeling utterly alone. He tells her he’s leaving the city, as he still can’t remember his way home even though he’s lived there for six months. He blames the language barrier, but this perpetuates Kapadia's framing of Mumbai as an overpopulated but deeply lonely place that no one should call home. “It’s a city of illusions,” he says to her, as if any semblance of happiness in the city isn’t genuine; it also hints at the movie’s title and grand thesis of the ways humans will distort their reality to find something to fight for.
'All We Imagine Is Light' May Be Too Slow For Some Audiences
The movie takes its time to get some steam, and it will certainly be too slow for a lot of audiences. The first half is especially dour, and the loose plot makes the structure even more lacking. Still, it’s worth seeing through to the movie’s last act, when the change of scenery feels like a shot of espresso. Abu and Prabha help Parvaty move out to a seaside village, and this is our first glimpse at genuine hope in the story. Prabha’s world opens up figuratively and literally, and she allows her walls to come down. This passes over into her relationship with Anu, and the two women recognize just how much they need each other despite their many differences. The movie’s tone starts to transition from defeatism to optimism. When a man washes up on the beach, the locals are quick to crowd around him and accept that there’s nothing they can do to help him. “He’s a goner,” and “He’s already dead, no?” are whispered within the nosey onlookers, and Prabha is the only one who knows CPR. She saves the man, and they end up forming a deep connection that Prabha didn’t realize (or didn't want to admit) she needed so intensely.
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All We Imagine as Light is a film about disconnection, and how we need people, a sense of place, and a feeling of belonging to survive. Director and writer Payal Kapadia set up many challenges for herself, some she overcomes, and some make their way into the final cut. Despite earning nothing but rave reviews since its premiere at Cannes, All We Imagine as Light feels like a movie you appreciate rather than enjoy. Kapadia’s camera work is exceptional, aptly turning a city with a population of over 20 million people to feel like the loneliest place on Earth. It’s a poetic, sobering experience, and while a lot of audiences may not find the patience to make it past the first half an hour, there is certainly an award for those who watch until the end. Still, don’t expect this to be a film where you’re in awe of every single frame and engaged from beginning to end. There are bumps along the way that may lose your investment, but its final act is a smooth road to a great view.
Kani Kusruti and Divya Prabha Give Impactful Performances
Kani Kusruti as the protagonist Prabha fills the role of a woman who’s taught herself to repress her most basic feelings well. She’s cold but not by choice, and behind every one-word answer is a world of complex feelings and emotions, beaten down by the idea that the key to an easy life is to just get on with things. Her performance on its own may not feel vivid enough to lead the film, and that’s where the importance of the work of the supporting cast comes in. Divya Prabha’s doe-eyed gaze trying to find the beauty and hope in everything is the much-needed antidote to Kusruti’s dejection. When things feel overly serious and dour in this world, it takes one flash of Kusruti’s face to bring the film to jolt a sense of recognition in the audience, and it’s her love story and fight for a better life that forges the strongest connection between the audience and the story.
It’s heartening to see a female-directed and starring Indian film that deals with abstract feelings garner so much attention from critics. It’s a deeply soulful movie that might seem cold at first, but eventually reveals itself to be a poetically touching movie about some of the most primal feelings humans experience. It just requires a good amount of patience. That said, there are sequences when it feels Kapadia is indulging too much in her visual language, and there are scenes that feel overly long without anything happening plot-wise. At just under two hours, the movie certainly could’ve shaved off 20 minutes and still landed its lyrical punch. But again, the destination is worth the journey, and it offers a viewing experience that feels earned in the end
All We Imagine as Light is slow, somber, but deeply human story of our search for belonging and connection.
- Divya Prabha as Anu gives an exceptional performance, forming an emotional crux for the audience.
- Payal Kapadia's camerawork effectively makes a large-city setting into a desolate, lonely background.
- The movie ends on a sweet and hopeful note.
- The movie can feel very slow at times, and requires a good amount of patience to invest in the story.
- The movie's protagonist can be hard to identify with at times.
- The film did not need to be two hours long, and would have benefited from a tighter runtime.
All We Imagine as Light screened at this year's BFI London Film Festival.
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