16/19
In Mumbai, nurse Prabha’s life is disrupted when she receives an unexpected gift from her estranged husband. Her younger roommate Anu struggles to find a place in the city where she can have an intimate relationship with her boyfriend. Director Payal Kapadia and the cast of All We Imagine As Light come together to share the most heartwarming reactions from Cannes and more. ! The first Indian film to win the prestigious Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival in 2024. This film dramatizes the many challenges faced by single women living in Bombay and highlights their resilience. Here, all the women are nurses in the same hospital, but that’s where the similarities end, as each has their own unique problems and, so to speak, solutions. Desire, fear, regret and enduring patience are the emotions that keep alternating as the story quietly unfolds. Probably the greatest asset is the script, which offers unusually rich and thoughtful dialogue between the characters. The amount of plot seems just enough to provide support for conversations where people have room to be unusually honest and careless with each other, even if they’re lying or posing. The acting is uniformly excellent, rising to the level of the writing — there are no false notes, though there are some torturous, loose ends. The photography and editing also do a good job of capturing the reflective and somewhat detached atmosphere, complementing the quiet intensity of the characters’ interactions. The detachment is heightened at several points where the film seemingly incorporates documentary elements, or certainly feels like one. I wasn’t always crazy about the music and the way it’s evoked, but it’s a minor quibble that many don’t share. I dispute another reviewer’s claim that this film was designed as “awards bait.” In my opinion, there is too much heart and honesty in this film to be categorized as cynical or manipulative – certainly not like any other film that wants to tell an important story in a compelling and beautiful way. And this film takes a lot of risks that I can’t imagine doing well in an increasingly sectarian and puritanical India. I highly recommend “All We Imagine as Light.”
