A poetic critique of urban politics in Payal Kapadia's 'All We Imagine as Light'

Mumbai is many things to its people; some fear calling it home despite having lived there for years. For others, it is a dream; for others, it is an illusion. Payal Kapadia's 'All We Imagine as Light' is a slice-of-life film that uses documentary-style narration to tell the story of a city and its three female protagonists. The film is a feminist statement as it talks about the gendered experiences of the three women and discourse on the class dynamics of a city built by the working class from different parts of the country and now owned by the crème de la crème of society.

Payal begins the story with the voices that escape the clutches of the busy Mumbai life and fly to us. These voiceovers feel authentic and continue throughout the film, reinforcing the viewer's sense that the protagonists are among the many voices they encounter.

Casting a city like Mumbai, which has often been clichéd on screen, was a risky choice. Highlighting the city's immutable characteristics could have been predictable, but Payal succeeds in giving Mumbai a fresh avatar. To showcase the city that never sleeps, Payal chose the wee hours of the night. The introduction subtly conveys the film's political undertones. It is not a tale of high-rises and the affluent but a portrayal of those who live on the city's streets, vulnerable to the monsoon's first downpour. Payal abstains from assigning specific faces to the voiceovers, taking the story beyond Mumbai and making it a universal narrative of those living in exile for various reasons.

When Payal introduces two of the main characters, nurses Prabha (Kani Kusruti) and Anu (Divya Prabha), they are shown returning from a night shift on a local train. Rather than relying on exposition, Kapadia illustrates their exhausting lives through visuals. Anu, fatigued, sleeps unmindfully on a train seat while Prabha stands by the coupe's door, clutching a pole. Lost in thought, she appears to wish for the wind to sweep away her weariness and fill her with the energy to face another day. The dark circles under her eyes are enough to convey the hardships they endure.

The city's reflections persist throughout the narrative until Prabha and Anu decide to accompany Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam) to her village.The sound design in the stethoscope scene is pure cinematic magic. This scene, which introduces us to Anu and her lover Shiraz (Hridhu Haroon), serves as an ode to Kalidasa's 'Meghaduta' and the Mumbai rains. Anu, lost in love, eagerly embraces the rain, while Prabha, burdened by pent-up emotions, initially resists it. As the story unfolds, Prabha gradually lets go of her resistance, embracing her true self.

Payal Kapadia's 'All We Imagine as Light' is both poetic, akin to Wim Wenders' 'Perfect Days,' and politically charged, like Bong Joon-ho's 'Parasite.' The film critiques right-wing intolerance through the love story of a Malayali Hindu woman and a Muslim man in Mumbai while exposing the ever-widening class divide in India. Before deciding to leave Mumbai for good, Parvaty tells Prabha, "They think that by building their towers taller and taller, one day they can replace God."

The final act is filled with hope. Parvaty finds a job in her village and feels at home. Anu and Shiraz reunite in the caves before forgotten idols. Kapadia employs magical realism to liberate Prabha from her emotional fortress. In the closing scene, all three women sit together in a shack by the sea. As the camera zooms out, a shop boy dances behind them. The shack, adorned with a string of LED lights, appears as an extension of the star-lit sky.