Review: ‘All We Imagine as Light,’ starring Kani Kusruti, Divya Prabha, Chhaya Kadam and Hridhu Haroon

November 28, 2024

by Carla Hay

“All We Imagine as Light”

Directed by Payal Kapadia

Hindi, Gujarati, Malayalam and Bhojpuri with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in India, the dramatic film “All We Imagine as Light” features an all-Indian cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: Three female friends, who are hospital co-workers, navigate various challenges in their lives.

Culture Audience: “All We Imagine as Light” will appeal mainly to people who are interested in drama about the lives of everyday people.

“All We Imagine as Light” offers a mood journey more than an obvious plot. It’s an introspective drama about relationships and hope from female viewpoints. However, the movie’s nearly two-hour running time is excessive for what this movie actually conveys. At least 30 minutes of the movie is unneccessary and could’ve been edited out without diminishing the overall plot. The movie’s slow pacing might also cause some viewers to lose interest in the story.

Written and directed by Payal Kapadia, “All We Imagine as Light” had its world premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, where the movie won the Grand Prix, the equivalent of second place in the festival’s main competition. “All We Imagine as Light” subsequently screened at numerous other film festivals in 2024, including the Toronto International Film Festival and the New York Film Festival. It’s a movie about people who live unassuming lives and whose dreams are muted by society’s oppressions and prejudices.

“All We Imagine as Light” focuses on three female friends, who are all co-workers at the same hospital in Mumbai, India. Prabha (played by Kani Kusruti) and Anu (played by Divya Prabha) are nurses and roommates with opposite personalities and lifestyles. Prabha is introverted and traditional. Anu is extroverted and free-spirited. Their friend Parvaty (played by Chhaya Kadam) works as a cook at the hospital.

Prabha is married, but her husband is away because he works at a factory in Germany, but he hasn’t kept in contact with her, so Prabha assumes that he has abandoned her. A physician at the hospital named Dr. Manoj (played by Azees Nedumangad) shows a romantic interest in Prabha, but she rejects his advances because she wants to remain loyal to her husband. Prabha feels lonely but she tries to suppress her feelings by focusing on her work and helping her friends.

Anu’s parents are pressuring her to find a husband through an arranged marriage. Anu is secretly dating a man named Shiaz (played by Hridhu Haroon), who would not be approved of by her parents because Shiaz is Muslim, and Anu is Hindu. Anu doesn’t feel like she’s ready for marriage, but she know she wants to marry for love, not because it’s an arranged marriage. Shiaz is a passionate suitor who wants Anu to live with him.

Parvaty, who has a personality filled with determination, is having problems with her living situation because the owner of the building where she lives wants to demolish the building to make way for a high-rise complex. Her electricity has been cut off. And she’s told by an attorney that she doesn’t have any proof that she lived there, so it’s very likely she will be evicted.

All three of the women’s problems are somehow intertwined with each other. A catalyst for something happening is when Prabha gets a rice cooker delivered to her as a gift by an anonymous sender. Prabha also helps Parvaty when Parvaty has to make a decision about her housing problem.

“All We Imagine as Light” patiently shows how Prabha, Anu and Parvaty deal with their personal issues while going about their everyday lives. Therefore, the movie has many scenes of the women at work or doing things that are quite mundane, such as traveling by bus. The “forbidden” romance of Anu and Shiaz brings some sizzle to a plot that sometimes stalls without much progress.

Interspersed with the lives of these three women are occasional scenes where the camera pans across the streets of Mumbai, as viewers hear snippets of conversations from people on the streets. “All We Imagine as Light” capably shows how many people come to Mumbai from small villages because there are more work opportunities in Mumbai. And they find that life in the big city can be overwhelming and lonely at the same time.

All of the cast members portray their characters with enough authenticity that it’s easy to perceive “All We Imagine as Light” as being inspired by any number of real people. The cinematography by Ranabir Das has elements of artistic realism that can keep viewers engaged, even when not much is happening in the story. The title of the movie is explained in the film’s last 15 minutes, which show the power of people helping each other during tough times.

Sideshow/Janus Films released “All We Imagine as Light” in select U.S. cinemas on November 15, 2024.