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DIGITAL

Opening Date

14 Nov 2024

Rating

M18 Sexual Scene

Runtime

118 mins

Language

Malayalam with English subtitles

Genre

Drama, Romance

Director

Payal Kapadia

Cast

Kani Kusruti, Divya Prabha, Chhaya Kadam

Synopsis

Centering on two roommates who also work together in a city hospital—head nurse Prabha (Kani Kusruti) and recent hire Anu (Divya Prabha)—and a newly retired coworker Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam), Kapadia’s film alights on prosaic moments of connection and heartache, hope and disappointment. Prabha, her husband from an arranged marriage living in faraway Germany, is pursued by a courtly doctor; Anu carries on a romance with a Muslim man, which she must keep a secret from her Hindu family; Parvaty finds herself dealing with a sudden eviction from her apartment.

Reviews

By InCinemas 07 Nov 2024

A visual and aural feast.

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The Cannes Film Festival 2024 Grand Prix recipient is a rare gem that’s reached Singapore.

Jazzy piano, breathtaking imagery, and a trio of stunning performances, Payal Kapadia’s sophomore feature and her first full-length narrative film is an instant favourite of the year for this writer as soon as the credits rolled.

All We Imagine as Light trails Prabha (Kani Kusruti), a dedicated nurse in a Mumbai hospital who’s grappling with her fragile marriage and estranged husband, and her younger roommate Anu (Divya Prabha), a passionate youth who struggles to find a haven for herself and her boyfriend in the city, as both women set themselves free on a getaway to a rural beach town.

Kapadia’s patience and tenderness in telling their stories is a treat to us audiences. Oftentimes, tales of women with similar challenges develop into confrontational melodramas and fail to explore their character journeys beyond a superficial level. All We Imagine as Light perfectly accomplished the opposite.

There is equal depiction of both Prabha and Anu’s vulnerability in this film, without reducing their characters to just that. Kusruti’s restrained but impactful portrayal of Prabha is touching, and speaks to the loneliness of numerous people like her. Anu’s character, which is no less emotional, is more audacious and easily the one that audiences root for.

Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam), a cook in the hospital Prabha and Anu work at and also the reason for their getaway to the rural beach town, has her fair share of troubles in this film and is a scene stealer. Kadam’s magnetic performance as the headstrong tenant of a chawl in Mumbai getting chased out by a powerful builder, left me wanting more of her.

Perhaps the greatest achievement of Kapadia in this film is her impeccable pacing. At almost two hours, the film shows no sign of dragging yet manages to offer both breadth and depth. The documentarian has certainly successfully expanded her craft and we should all look forward to her upcoming projects.

All We Imagine as Light is a visual and aural feast. Well balanced with the bustling atmosphere of Mumbai, the natural beauty of Ratnagiri coast and a comforting tone in its score, which in my view is one of this year’s most underrated, this film is a gorgeous work of art with a lot of heart.

Catch it exclusively at The Projector from 14 November onwards!
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