Kapadia’s City Song: ‘All We Imagine as Light’

Cinema | January 6th, 2025

By Greg Carlson

Indian filmmaker Payal Kapadia’s narrative fiction feature debut “All We Imagine as Light” is, among other things, a cinematic consideration of place. The movie begins but does not end in Mumbai, and the viewer hears multiple languages spoken throughout the deceptively simple and seductive story. Like Varda’s Paris in “Cléo From 5 to 7” (1962), Wong’s Hong Kong in “Chungking Express” (1994), and the titular Rio suburb in Meirelles and Lund’s “City of God” (2002), Kapadia conveys the essence of a particular city from the perspective of a native with deep knowledge. The weather, and especially the rains of monsoon season, evoke nothing less than a central character with just as much to say as the trio of women at the heart of the story.

Kapadia, now in her late 30s, also wrote the screenplay, inviting viewers into the lives of dedicated Malayali hospital caregivers. Prabha (Kani Kusruti), the deeply serious and occasionally dour head nurse, has labored for a long time without her husband, who moved to Germany for work shortly after their arranged marriage began. Younger roommate Anu (Divya Prabha) has fallen hard for Shiaz (Hridhu Haroon), despite the reality that their differing religions stand in the way of a formal commitment. A third friend, Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam), is on the staff of the same hospital’s kitchen. Facing eviction after decades in Mumbai, she makes the decision to return to her birthplace in the seaside district of Ratnagiri.

Prabha and Anu accompany Parvaty to assist with the relocation. Kapadia capitalizes on the geographical shift, highlighting the immediate change of pace between the unforgiving speed of Mumbai and the relative tranquility of Parvaty’s village. Shiaz follows, as he and Anu are determined to find some privacy following the comic (and possibly cosmic) interruptions that have kept them from one another in the city. For the lovers and the viewers, the wait is worth it. Kapadia stages their encounter with lush sensuality, collaborating with cinematographer Ranabir Das to construct one of the year’s most intensely erotic scenes.

Prabha, whose own loneliness contributes to a hint of jealousy at Anu’s semi-secret love affair, applies her professional training when an unidentified man washes up on the shore after nearly drowning. Kapadia wrings an intense moment of clarity and reckoning from the surprising outcome of the encounter, trusting the audience to make sense of Prabha’s profound experience. The missing husbands have become a significant theme. In addition to Prabha’s absent spouse and the practical impossibility of a union between Anu and Shiaz, Parvaty is a widow. The director subtly plants the seeds of many ideas on the subjects of marriage and the partnership between friends.

“All We Imagine as Light” is simultaneously slow cinema and fast cinema, insofar as the blazing speed of life in Mumbai is depicted in stark contrast to the detailed relationships of the people Kapadia chooses to share with us. The turn away from the city to Parvaty’s hometown reinforces Kapadia’s commentary on the challenges faced by the three women in a system and culture built to the advantage of men and the disadvantage of women. Justin Chang points out that one of the movie’s villains is “ … a world in which a woman’s rights effectively die with her husband,” and “All We Imagine as Light” ruminates on that complex issue along with questions of loneliness, solidarity and autonomy.

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