All We Imagine as Light — Cannes 2024 Movie Review
Doston Cannes khatam ho gaya hai finally, aur kuch reviews nikaal rahi hoon ab, yeh waala starting with a resounding…….
Women Telling Women’s Stories!
Payal ki pichli film, A Night Of Knowing Nothing Cannes mein best doc ka award jeeti thi in 2021. I came to that film much later, kyunki india mein na kabhi release hui, na koi tareeka tha legally dekhne ka. Set amid student protests at FTII, that film uses voice acting as its main story telling tool. There are no actors, the visuals are all real people doing real things, and the story, of two lovers forced apart by their families because of caste, plays out entirely in dramatic VO.
All We Imagine As Light ALSO starts with disembodied voices. You hear people who live in Mumbai, talking about their relationship with the city. A man says he’s scared of calling it his home despite spending 23 years here, as you see early morning visuals of a sabzi mandi, jahaan se poore shehar ke gharo aur hotelon mein whole sale bhaav par bhaaji jaati hai. This stretch of the city feels like your own kitchen, like home, but another voice reminds you of the migrant population that makes the bones of the city, every village in India has one person who lives in Mumbai.
It becomes evident, that the story that Payal then tells, of three women who work in the city but aren’t “from” here, is her acute observations are someone who grew up in the city. The city then sort of becomes the observer, as three lives unfold. You ENTER their story via Mumbai, a mother and a monster, a lover and a rival. The setting of the story almost becomes a real person, almost like a talking head in a documentary.
Kani Kusruti is Prabha And Divya Prabha is Anu, two nurses from Kerala, both employed at the same small specialty hospital in Mumbai. Prabha has moved up in the ranks to becoming a senior staff member. Anu still fresh, is sincere but has a sense of naïve adventure the world has not stolen from her yet. Still unaware of the hell she will likely have to go through once her Muslim boyfriend is “found out”, she looks for every opportunity to steal kisses, in a mall, at his house, or away on a beach. Prabha, mildly disapproving of Anu, wonders if she has any right to rebuke this young girl, kyunki herself she doesn’t know what love and romantic touch feel like, her husband has more or less abandoned her, for a life in Germany.
Third is Parvathy, the mess lady at the hospital. Played by Chhaya Kadam, once again doling out wisdom while making chai, Parvathy is a far cry from Laapata Ladies ki Manju Mai. While Manju chose to live outside society’s rules, Parvathy is forced to leave a society she desperately want to be a part of. She is being evicted from her house, because as a widow, she has no paperwork to prove that she is her ownership over the shanty she’s lived in for 20 + years.
Life, disillusionment aur hope ke teen alag alag padaav par yeh teeno walk alongside each other, not seeking a revolution or change, but simply becoming each other’s practical helpers, no speeches required. Prabha agrees to cover Anu’s rent because being in her company gives her a sort of strength to perhaps pursue a romantic liaison of her own with a doctor at the hospital. She helps Parvathy get legal counsel because her body knows the pain of loneliness. While teaching young nurses at the hospital, who gag at the sight of the placenta, she sternly but kindly asks them to toughen up quick. Prabha doesn’t even know when she became the embodiment of the very buttress she probably never had. And because kindness is infectious when you’re young and impressionable, Anu has started to pay it forward, by treating her patients with care and genuine concern, despite the depressing hospital setting.
For most of the final act, the women go to Parvathy’s village, a sleepy area near the sea, and suddenly the screen sort of expands, filling with brightness. The title “All We Imagine As Light” comes alive as one marvel at Ranabir Das’s cinematography and his ability to control the viewers’ very breathing patterns. Parvathy’s little Mumbai kholi, jiski chaaro deewarein bhi nahi dikhti hain ek frame mein, is replaced by a house you can almost feel a breeze flow through. Prabha’s apartment, where the brightest thing is a shiny new electric rice cooker, is replaced by the beach, where she actually even manages to save a drowning man’s life, and Anu manages to have the encounter with her boyfriend, the narrow lanes of Mumbai had denied her. Hridhu Haroon as the boyfriend Shiaz is the perfect wholesome king bhagwaan har chaahne waale ko de.
Payal yahaan as a privileged Mumbai dweller apni complicity par bhi ponder kar rahi hain is film se, ki koi upward mobility na hone ke baavjood jin logon ko iss shehar ko ghar banana padta hai, beach towns chhodkar tapakti hui chhaton ke neeche sona padta hai, unke prati shehar ki responsibility kya hai? Kaagaz nahi, toh vajood nahi?
Parvathy ke gaanv ki ek gufa mein, jahaan pappu loves shaaloo khuda hai, wahaan kisi ne azaadi bhi likh diya hai bada. Kis azaadi ki demand hogi yeh likhne waale ki? To chose who you love? To pick where you live? To be free from capitalism? Kisi student leader ne likha hoga? Or to just be able to drive by the sabzi mandi without wondering how much longer you’ll be able to claim the space you occupy in the city?
So, on a scale of 1 to 10, All We Imagine As Light is….3–4 bhashaayein har second sunaayi padti hain Mumbai mein kisi bhi road par nikal jaao, kisi bhi time, which is my favorite thing about this city jisey mainey 14 saal pehle ghar banaaya tha. Hindi English ke alaava, what do you speak? Bataao comments mein?
