Two young nurses get a new lease of life when they leave bustling Mumbai
for an assignment in a small coastal village.
Review by
Benjamin Poole
Directed by: Payal Kapadia
Starring: Kani Kusruti, Divya Prabha, Chhaya Kadam
Midway through Payal Kapadia's gorgeously filmed
All We Imagine as Light, a voiceover proudly informs us that Mumbai, the drama's setting, is a
"city of dreams, a city of illusion." It is a romantic framing which
juxtaposes what we have already witnessed of the metropolis, which is
depicted as a bustling, heavily populated expanse in constant transition
to an industrial soundtrack of further municipal development. Nowhere
breeds loneliness like a city, and to emphasise this point, Kapadia
hones in on Prabha (Kani Kusruti) returning home on the late
train from her job as a nurse. A notice stating that her carriage is
"Female Only" specifically features in the background, a subtle reminder
of both the film and the city's patriarchal divides. The train rushes
through the night and looming concrete while Prabha remains completely
still. Unlike our main character, the city does not stop: Kapadia
introduces it to us via early morning tracking shots of markets being
assembled and cramped crowds amassing for the daily commute; each person
as solitary as Prabha. Further to the voiceover's introductory
suggestion, perhaps it is more than just "time" that the city takes
away.
All We Imagine as Light (Ranabir Das'
cinematography honours the evocative poetry of the tile as it recreates
Mumbai as a twinkling, nocturnal jewel box) is a film you live within, a
deeply immersive experience. We closely follow Prabha to her home (where
she prepares a meal: I always love it when we see people genuinely cook
on film; slicing onion, hands greasy, steam rising; the
verisimilitude!), we shadow her as she works, and we overhear sporadic
conversation with colleagues and friends. Most prominent of these is Anu
(Divya Prabha), young enough to retain a dreamy idealism
concerning love as she carries on an affair with a young Muslim man.
This indiscretion causes concern in the hospital, and Prahba, who also
shares an apartment with Anu, is encouraged to keep a close eye on her
pal. This while Prahba herself is in a sort of mourning for her husband,
who, apparently, upped and left to live in Germany - one morning an air
fryer is delivered to the apartment with a Deutschland postmark. In a
moment of stark lament, Prahba cradles it as if it were the child she
will never have.
Although the world around her rushes towards an undefined urban future,
Prahba is in a twilight state of stasis and unable to move past her
husband's absence. The circumstances of each of
All We Imagine as Light's female triumvirate are defined by their relationships with men, and
the trio is completed by Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam), a cook at the
hospital, who is at risk of being evicted from her shanty town flat due
to the city's endless progress. We will see the women throw stones at a
billboard stating that "Class is a privilege reserved for the
privileged," a banner with such blatant sentiment one wonders if Delta
City borders Mumbai. The politicised nods serve to anchor the
experiences of the protagonists, who are lost within the shifting maze
of the city with all its airless urgency and fealty to tradition.
Thus, a diptych narrative develops and at almost exactly the halfway
point of All We Imagine as Light, Prahba and Anu accompany Parvaty to her seaside village home. The
change is palpable, freedom from the insistency of Mumbai is connoted by
the wash of ocean sounds and the thick verdancy of the jungled environs.
Within which, we witness Prahba doing toilet (I did say we follow her
closely...) where she espies Anu and her fancy man pursuing their
affair: even in this absconded paradise, traditions linger and what was
ostensibly left in the city will have to be confronted, one way other
another. A flawlessly produced film,
All We Imagine as Light contrasts the reckless bustle of
its city setting with its slow narrative, deliberate storytelling and
carefully constructed characterisation.
All We Imagine As Light is in
UK/ROI cinemas from November 29th.
