One of the joys of the awards season push is seeing what other countries have to offer besides the United States. Not only are we getting insights to new places and people, but also different ways to use movies to tell stories. All We Imagine As Light gives us a 2 hour trip through modern India through director Payal Kapadia’s eyes: incredible, brilliant, thought-provoking eyes that will stay with you long after the journey ends.
In modern Mumbai we follow two nurses at a hospital rooming together. Younger Anu (Divya Prabha) is distracted from her job, sneaking out to meet her Muslim boyfriend Shiaz (Hridhu Haroon) whom she’s slowly falling in love with. Her older roommate Prabha (Kani Kusruti) covers for her, distracted in her own right with a long distance relationship…and with Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam) the hospital’s cook dealing with housing issues.
Now, that set up might make you think All We Imagine As Light will be either a romcommy setup with Anu and Shiaz, or perhaps a more sinister thriller leading to some sort of dark resolution. Been there, done that. Payal Kapadia instead turns this into a visual photo shoot with moving pictures of people going about their day to day lives. Anu and Shiaz’s courtship feels like they’re being photographed in secret but not in a sinister way, more in a way to capture those little moments of the two of them longingly lovingly staring at one another, excited to find quiet secret places to kiss and be together. Prabha’s story is equally beautiful but more solemnly shot. She’s in Kapadia’s Wong Kar Wai homage, where Dr. Manoj (Azees Nedumangad), whom she likes is unable to find a way into her heart, miles away with her German husband. Through these two women (with the third Parvaty also important) Payal Kapadia paints a picture of Mumbai we don’t hear about today: a strange, complex place filled with all different types of people constantly changing, that is being lived in and built by people with all sorts of backstories and narratives that don’t always fit into Mumbai’s shapeshifting puzzle. The city isn’t a bad place per se, but it’s moved by forces far outside control of these people, who are forced to make decisions based on the hands they’re dealt and feelings they feel.
Then boldly, we change locations about an hourish in. This new place is heaven on Earth for Parvaty, Anu, and Prabha, who desperately need some sort of catharsis in their lives. In this mini vacation our location is more quiet and pensive, allowing our characters time to breathe and finally confront their conflicts and desires to see what they want to do. Kani Kusruti is incredible as the story goes along, carrying the burdens of other characters on her face and heart as well as her own. Years of anguish and longing have forged this amazing woman, who can overcome her own issues and at the same time help her two friends with some earned wisdom that applies to their situations. All We Imagine As Light’s ending is perfect for this movie, finding a moving final photo with everyone in an acceptable place, enjoying some brief, special moments of happiness before getting back to the grind.
Payal Kapadia makes her movie feel like she extracted an entire memory from a country. She then took that memory, and molded it into something digestible for everyone else to experience, shapeshifting that memory into something else for us to digest and think upon. I don’t know how I totally feel about All We Imagine As Light, but I do know it is something special to be appreciated and cherished, which I have been doing ever since the movie ended. Hopefully you get the chance to be a part of it as well someday.