All We Imagine As Light review: A resplendent portrait of womanhood

Amid the heady haze, unrelenting traffic, and humidity of the city of Mumbai, three complex women sit at the core of Payal Kapadia's All We Imagine As Light. Written and directed by the Mumbai-based A Night of Knowing Nothing filmmaker in her first fiction feature, the film is as much an ode to modern womanhood as it is to the bustling city itself.

With exquisite, vulnerable, and dynamic performances from Kani Kusruti (Girls Will Be Girls), Divya Prabha (Ariyippu), and Chhaya Kadam (Sister Midnight), the Cannes Grand Prix-winning film explores varying experiences of living within India's most populated city — where women are challenging the status quo. Emboldened by a pulsating synth-fuelled score by Dhritiman Das and superb cinematography by his brother Ranabir, the film renders this energetic city as a living, breathing character itself, an organic being in a state of constant flux.

What is All We Imagine As Light about?

Tracing the interweaving lives of three women working together in a multi-speciality hospital in Mumbai, the film presents a nuanced, multifaceted portrait of both its protagonists and the metropolis itself.

Prabha (Kusruti), one of the hospital's senior nurses, is managing her guilt over feelings for a coworker while concealing the pain caused by her long-distance marriage. Anu (Prabha), her younger roommate, has a secret romance with Shiaz (Crash Course's Hridhu Haroon), which they hide for religious and social reasons. And Parvaty (Kadam), the eldest of the three, is facing eviction by Mumbai's wealthy developers due to her lack of written claim to her home; her proof of identity quite literally does not exist on paper.

As their lives take different turns, the three find their way to Parvaty's home town in a coastal village in the district of Ratnagiri for a breath of fresh air, new perspectives, and the unlocking of their suppressed passions, desires, and memories.

The three leads of All We Imagine As Light are sublime

Embodying very different experiences of womanhood within the bustling city of Mumbai, the three leads of All We Imagine As Light are the true heart of the film. Despite their bond, there's a deep sense of isolation in each of the characters, some benefitting from the anonymity such a large city provides (Anu's secret love affair), others being crushed by it (Parvaty's eviction), and the three leads crystallise Kapadia's beautiful script of powerfully cinematic everyday moments.

As the stoic, acquiescent Prabha, Girls Will Be Girls star Kusruti expertly conveys internalised heartbreak and suppressed frustration as she endures a communication-less marriage with her husband living abroad. Prabha constantly supports others financially or emotionally, dismissing her own desires, and Kusruti infuses her performance with intense longing and concealed loneliness.

The youngest of the three, Ariyippu actor Prabha, brings a dynamic, naive, passionate energy to Anu. Forced to keep her relationship a secret, she's frustrated by her lack of agency, and motivated by intense emotion, which triggers her roommate's internalised patriarchal judgment. This sense of projected insecurity and decorum becomes a major hurdle for Anu and Prabha, with the tension between social scandal and suppressed passion, obedience and empowerment forming the core arc for them.

As the eldest, Parvaty is facing serious challenges with her home about to be swallowed up by the city's wealthy development, and forms the embodiment of Kapadia's exploration of Mumbai's sense of impermanence. Kadam is measured, frank, and meticulous in the character. While Parvaty's sense of financial autonomy disappears in Mumbai, it thrives in her home town, a contrast that brings up significant inner conflict for all three women. This sense of place, in the film, is more than mere setting.

The city of Mumbai is a character itself in All We Imagine As Light

A humming, energetic metropolis holding over 21 million people, Mumbai is as much a character in All We Imagine As Light as its leads. Filmed across the neighbourhoods of Lower Parel and Dadar, the "city of lights" is also deemed a "city of illusions" in the movie; it's a place of expectation and disappointment, of isolation and spontaneity, of nightlife and hard work, of wealthy developers swallowing up affordable housing — as Parvaty observes, "You could just vanish into thin air and no one would know."

With Dhritiman Das' hypnotic, minimal electronic score framing intimate cinematography by Ranabir Das, the city hums throughout the film's first two acts. The omnipresent sounds of trains, construction noise, and traffic rumble through every scene, as director Kapadia collides the city's exterior din with hushed interior scenes. Within these populated streets, Kapadia finds poignant, human moments, both with the three protagonists and supporting characters. Here, the film almost feels like a documentary at times. Each resident, the director urges, has their own Mumbai story, and we're allowed to hear a great number of these in voiceover — tales of how each person arrived in the city, learned to forget things, escape things, and find new beginnings there. 

Each tale is paired with sweeping city shots, glimpses of shop owners, apartment dwellers, and night footballers, and predominantly, intimate, personal connections on public transport. DOP Das' long shots along Mumbai's streets make you feel like you're simply on the ride through the hubbub, and the characters have major life conversations on their commutes. With assured editing from Clément Pinteaux (So Long Sadness), the film presents Mumbai as a landscape of impermanence, a city in constant motion. Notably, Kapadia sets the the film during the monsoon season, visually imbuing a sense of humidity, dampness, and discomfort, but also using the weather to its romantic advantage; several scenes in the torrential rain are stunning moments of relief.

It's this detailed attention paid to Mumbai that makes the film's third act shift to the beach village in Ratnagiri so impactful, as Prabha, Anu, and Parvaty find individual moments of peace, empowerment, and contentment here that they can't access in Mumbai. The film's final act allows the three to reclaim themselves beyond the anonymity of the city, and see beyond the towering skyscrapers to alternative possibilities.

By the end of All We Imagine as Light, these women are able to see from one another's perspective in a way that broadens their appreciation for each other as women, and in turn, our understanding of their turmoil. It's a boldly intimate film that feels so real it could be non-fiction, with some of the best performances you'll see all year.

All We Imagine As Light is out now in select U.S. cinemas, and in UK and Irish cinemas on Nov. 29.