By John Corrado

Payal Kapadia, the filmmaker behind the 2021 documentary A Night of Knowing Nothing, makes her narrative feature debut with All We Imagine as Light. Kapadia’s film, which was awarded the Grand Prix at Cannes earlier this year, is a touching and very heartfelt slice-of-life portrait of women in modern India.

The film mainly focuses on the friendship between Prabha (Kani Kusruti) and Anu (Divya Prabha), two roommates who work as nurses at a hospital in Mumbai. Prabha’s husband left to work in Germany years earlier, but her desire for connection is reignited when she receives an unexpected gift from him in the mail; a brand new rice-cooker that Anu helps her unwrap.

Anu is secretly dating Shiaz (Hridhu Haroon), a Muslim man, with both of them having to keep the relationship hidden from their families; her parents are already in the process of trying to select a Hindu man for her to marry. Parvata (Chhaya Kadam) also works at the hospital, and is dealing with the possibility of being evicted from her home, to make way for the development of luxury condos.

Kapadia captures the hustle and bustle of present day Mumbai, but also quiet moments of reflection and connection between characters. This is especially true in the film’s second half, when it takes on a more dreamlike tone. It’s firmly centred around a female perspective, giving a quiet dignity to the experiences of these women and their desires, as they push up against a society that too often overlooks their contributions or simply takes them for granted.

The lovely cinematography by Ranabir Das has a warm glow to it. The harsh, fluorescent lights of the hospital give way to the vibrant colours of Mumbai at night, as Anu and Shiaz continue their verboten relationship browsing markets and vendors under the softness of streetlights. There is cinematic beauty in the images that Das captures here, be it bustling streets overlaid by snippets of voiceover, or lingering shots of everyday life as the women prepare food and do laundry.

At two hours, the film unfolds as a measured pace, but Kapadia finds a rhythm in the daily lives of these women. The strong performances underpin the film. Kusruti, Prabha and Kadam all deliver understated, quietly engaging work, believably portraying the bonds and friendship between these characters. Finally, All We Imagine as Light is topped off with a wonderful musical score by Dhritiman Das and Topshe, the trickling piano notes adding a wistful quality to the film that is prominent in several scenes without overshadowing them.

Film Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)

All We Imagine as Light opens exclusively in theatres in limited release on November 22nd, including at TIFF Lightbox in Toronto. It’s being distributed in Canada by Films We Like.