“All We Imagine as Light”, which won the Grand Prix award at the Cannes Film Festival early in last year, is a haunting character drama about three different women in Mumbai. While phlegmatically illustrating their daily lives in the middle of the city, the movie dexterously balances itself between vivid realism and delicate poetry, and the result often exudes quiet emotional power along its reflective narrative.

After the opening scene where the movie looks here and there in Mumbai as a number of people casually talk about their life and hope outside the screen, we are introduced to its three main female characters: Prabha (Kani Kuscruti), Anu (Divya Prabha), and Parvathy (Chhaya Kadam). While they are different from each other in many aspects including their respective backgrounds, they all work in a big local hospital, and the early part of the movie observes how they respectively go through another usual working day of theirs.

Besides being close colleagues at their workplace, Prabha and Anu have lived together as roommates mainly because Prabha’s husband has been absent for years since he left for Germany for working there not long after their hasty marriage. There was a time when Prabha and her husband frequently corresponded with each other over the phone, but he has become more distant to her day by day after stopping calling her at some point, and she is reminded more of his absence when she later receives a big package probably sent from her husband.

Meanwhile, we come to sense something being developed between Prabha and one of those doctors working in her hospital. It is apparent from one brief moment between them that the doctor is interested in getting closer to her, and it seems that Prabha is also attracted to this decent dude, but she naturally hesitates as a woman who has always been expected by her social tradition to be a faithful wife despite her husband’s continuing absence. Observing how courteous they are to each other without revealing their respective feelings much to each other to the end, you may be reminded of the restrained but undeniably exquisite romance melodrama of David Lean’s great film “Brief Encounter” (1945) – and how it is usually more interesting to observe two people hesitating to follow their romantic feelings instead of going all the way for that.     

Prabha’s increasingly frustrating personal status is often contrasted with Anu’s burgeoning secret romance, which has incidentally been an open secret among many of her co-workers including Prabha. As a younger woman who is less weary compared to her roommate, Anu does not mind the social restrictions on her romantic relationship with a handsome young Muslim lad, and neither does he, though both of them should be discreet from time to time even when they meet each other outside. Alternatively amused and touched by a series of romantic interactions between these two young people, I could help but reflect more on how numerous social restrictions and taboos have pathetically failed to stop millions of secret lovers out there from passionately following their heart throughout the human history.

Meanwhile, we also get to know more about the ongoing problem of Parvathy, who has worked as a cook in the hospital for many years. She has lived alone by herself in an old building to be demolished sooner or later by some greedy builders eager to build a skyscraper at the spot, but, despite some help from Prabha, it soon turns out that there is not any possible way to stop those greedy builders from evicting her from her old residence.

As director/writer Payal Kapadia’s screenplay takes its time, these three female main characters’ personal stories slowly run in parallel while occasionally resonating with each other, and the streets, buildings, and many various people of Mumbai are also presented as another crucial element in the story. As we listen again to the words from a number of citizens later, the mood becomes more reflective on millions of individual lives in the city later in the movie, and that is quite moving to say the least.  

Not long after Parvathy eventually makes an important decision on her life, the movie surprises us a bit via changing its main background, and that is where its three female main characters come to reflect more on how their respective lives are going – and what they should do for themselves. I will not go into details here, but I can tell you instead that there are several sublime human moments including the one which will linger on your mind for a long time because of its somber but effortless incorporation of magic realism. Around the time when the movie arrives at its very last scene, we observe some important changes from its three main female characters, and Kani Kusruti, Divya Prabha, and Chhaya Kadam are convincing as before while ably carrying the film to the end. 

On the whole, “All We Imagine as Light”, which was sadly not chosen as the Indian submission to Best International Film Oscar (They instead chose “Laapataa Ladies” (2023), which is a fairly good female film but is not a better choice in my inconsequential opinion), is a terrific movie to be admired for its excellent mood, storytelling, and performance. Kapadia, who previously won the Golden Eye award for the best documentary film for her first feature documentary film “A Night of Knowing Nothing” at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, demonstrates here that she is another new rising filmmaker to watch, and her remarkable first feature film may be just the beginning of whatever she will achieve during next several years. In short, this is indeed one of the best movies of last year, and you will not be disappointed especially if you are looking for something fresh and different.