All We Imagine as Light (15) |Close-Up Film Review

The 2024 Cannes Film Festival Grand Prix winner is a poetic portrait of three women finding their way in contemporary Mumbai. It is very nicely done, but strangely forgettable. A week after watching, what I remember most is Kani Kusruti’s face and the deep-ocean meets gun-metal blue palette that pervades the film. 

Prabha (Kusruti) is a nurse in an urban hospital. Her daily routine is upset when she receives an unexpected gift from her estranged husband in Germany. Her younger, flightier roommate, Anu (Prabha), tries in vain to find a spot in the city to be intimate with her secret boyfriend. Their colleague Parvaty (Kadam) fights to stay in her home after her husband’s death. 

The trio eventually head out to Parvaty’s beachside shack to get some respite from the pressures of the city. 

Payal Kapadia made history with All We Imagine as Light, as the first female Indian filmmaker to have a film in the prestigious Official Competition section of the Cannes festival. 

She tells her fictional stories in a poetical but slightly non-fiction way: drama is minimalised and environment and ambience radiate from every shot. I’d definitely rewatch but I am not completely convinced by all the hoo-hah over this one. 

All We Imagine as Light is in cinemas from 29 October 2024.