'All We Imagine as Light' movie review: Payal Kapadia's directorial is a poetic look at life in Mumbai

Still from All We Imagine As Light

Film: All We Imagine as Light
Cast: Kani Kusruti, Divya Prabha, Chhaya Kadam, Hridhu Haroon
Director: Payal Kapadia
Rating: 4/5
Runtime: 114 min.

Payal Kapadia's celebrated film gives us a glimpse of the multifaceted nature of urban life. From the highs to the lows, the energy to the solitude, the chaos to the beauty - each character within offers a unique perspective on the urban experience.

It's well past midnight and the camera takes us deep inside the chaotic streets of Mumbai, with people bustling and hustling, trying to ready themselves for the next day at work. We hear people talking about their insecurities… and then the camera focuses on a lone woman in a blue sari commuting home by train and therein begins the story.

Prabha (Kani Kusruti) a nurse takes yet another train ride home at the end of another long day. Clinging to the pole, She steadies herself as she allows the pungent night air to stir up her senses.

For Payal, the night seems like a magical space where anything is possible. There's aching sadness, loneliness and pain in "All We Imagine as Light" but there's also a light that heals.

Prabha shares her apartment with fellow nurse, Anu (Divya Prabha), who is involved in a clandestine relationship with a Muslim boy, Shiaz (Hridu Haroon). Prabha disaproves given that there's a lot of gossip about Anu's inter-faith affair. But Anu scoffs it all off. Then two events occur. First, Anu brings a pregnant cat home and later, a package arrives from Prabha's far-off husband, containing, an expensive-looking rice cooker. Prabha's marriage has been in limbo ever since her husband flew off to Germany soon after the ink was dry on the marriage certificate and she has never heard from him since. So it's no wonder that she feels disturbed by the gadget's presence in her home.

Parvaty, Prabha's friend has been unceremoniously ousted from her dwelling and it's up to Prabha to find her a lawyer. Their lives get murkier as time passes.

Whether celebrating the vibrancy of city streets or delving into the melancholy of urban solitude, every sequence resonates with the viewer. The women in this story are longing for love and happiness in a world where everything seems impermament. In the film's third act, Prabha and Anu accompany Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam), on her journey back to the seaside village where she grew up. Parvaty's seaside village is an oasis where the three women eventually find release. Their individual flights of fancy are what helps transcend this experience to one of high art. There's poetry and escapism lambent in the depiction but it's what they need that matters.

Payal Kapadia's direction and DP Ranabir Das' frames serve as reminders that even within the hurly-burly of a bustling metropolis, there is always poetry to be found.

Dhritiman Das' piano score accentuates the melancholia and playfulness inherent in this dramedy of sorts. Kapadia tells us that a new setting could give a person renewed hope. Adding magic realism into that mix was a masterstroke. It made the experience that much more lyrical and redolent.