31/34
In Mumbai, nurse Prabha’s routine is disrupted when she receives an unexpected gift from her estranged husband. Her younger roommate, Anu, tries in vain to find a place in the city to be intimate with her boyfriend.. Director Payal Kapadia and the cast of All We Imagine As Light come together to share the most heartfelt reactions from Cannes and much more!. The first Indian film to receive the prestigious Grand Prix at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. This film dramatizes many of the challenges faced by single women living in Bombay and highlights their resilience. All the women here are nurses in the same hospital, but the similarity ends there, as each has her own specific set of problems and, one might say, solutions. Desire, fear, regret and brazen patience are the emotions that constantly alternate as the story quietly unfolds. Perhaps the biggest asset is the screenplay, which offers unusually rich and thoughtful dialogues between the characters. The amount of action in the plot seems sufficient to provide a scaffolding for conversations in which people have room to be unusually honest and unguarded with each other, even when they’re lying or posing. The acting is equally excellent and rises to the level of the writing — there are no false notes, although there are some irritating loose ends. The photography and editing are also quite good at creating an atmosphere that is reflective and somewhat detached, complementing a quiet intensity to the characters’ interactions. The alienation is heightened at several points where the film seems to incorporate documentary elements, or certainly creates such a feeling. I wasn’t always crazy about the music and the way it’s invoked, but that’s a minor quibble that many may not share. I dispute another reviewer’s claim that this film was intended as «awards bait.» In my opinion, there is too much heart and honesty in this film to be categorized as cynical or manipulative – certainly no more than any other film that seeks to tell an important story in a compelling and beautiful way. And this film takes many risks that I can’t imagine would go over well in an increasingly sectarian and puritanical India. I highly recommend «All We Imagine as Light.»