Originally from Mumbai herself, filmmaker Payal Kapadia highlights her hometown in the meditative film “All We Imagine As Light.” Kapadia previously directed numerous short films and a full-length documentary, but this film serves as her fiction feature-length directorial debut.
“All We Imagine As Light” finds coworkers and roommates Prabha (Kani Kusruti) and Anu (Divya Prabha) at a crossroads in their lives. Prabha is married but estranged from her husband — who lives in Germany — while Anu is forced to sneak around with her boyfriend since he is Muslim and she is Hindu. When their colleague Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam) at the hospital they work at is suddenly faced with an eviction notice, Prabha does everything in her power to help her friend.
There is an observational quality to the cinematography of Kapadia’s film that speaks to her previous success in the documentary world. Shots of people walking the streets of the city and of trains passing by overlaid on conversational scenes create both a juxtaposition of ideas and a rhythm within the film.
By focusing on working-class characters but also utilizing a documentary filmmaking style, there is an inherent risk in films such as this one of creating a work that feels exploitative, or as if the characters are being viewed through a fishbowl. “All We Imagine As Light” deftly avoids this pitfall by allowing its characters to fail and succeed. Neither Prabha nor Anu are perfect people, but they realize their shortcomings and work to fix them. The way they go about this is still not perfect, it’s worth noting, but in a way that feels distinctly human.
The way the two characters are pictured also adds to this sense of humanity. On their train ride to and from work, for example, Kapadia’s framing of the friends makes viewers feel as though they are on the train as well. The success of this film is heavily reliant on the effectiveness of these two characters. This is a testament to both Kapadia’s style and the actors’ abilities to embody their roles. They portray their characters with truth and generosity, rather than imitations of real people like them who certainly do exist in the real world.
“All We Imagine As Light” builds both in emotion and story, but it’s quite slow-going. Everything leads to a heartfelt ending, but there are moments of lethargy in the middle that make its only 118-minute runtime feel a little bloated. This rather unfortunate sense of time that the film imparts on its viewers is indicative of Kapadia’s novice as a feature-length filmmaker; but given that it’s perhaps the only indication of her status as a first-time filmmaker, Kapadia is more than deserving of the flowers she’s received. It doesn’t have to be said that making a full-length film is difficult, and Kapadia’s skill in storytelling, direction and visual sense more than outweighs the pacing issues. The slow moments pass, and even when they occur, they’re accompanied by such beautiful imagery that it’s easy to get lost in them and the story at large.
And even beyond visuals, this film is engaging and significant if only for its subject matter. Films about working class Indian women are few and far between. “All We Imagine As Light” not only adds to this section of stories that is otherwise sorely lacking, it’s a beautiful addition that displays its characters with honesty and appreciation, and in a way that is not glorified at all. Everything about the film feels real, making the dream-like parts of the story towards the end all the more effective.
“All We Imagine As Light” won the Grand Prix award at Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, marking the first time since 1994 that a film from India placed in the festival. It had its United States premiere at New York Film Festival, and is slated for a limited theatrical release starting November 15.