The bustle, blues and glory of Mumbai melt away into a bittersweet tale of love and friendship in Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine as Light.
The first Indian film to be in the running for the Palme d’Or in over three decades, and the first to win the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival since 1946, it explores the overlooked lives of three women in a city that promises they’ll achieve their big dreams.
When I found out the film was screening at the Vancouver International Film Festival, I wasted no time booking tickets and rallying my equally excited best friends to the Vancouver Playhouse.
Throughout the film, we found ourselves excitedly pointing at the screen whenever we spotted a familiar street corner, local market or one of the many train stations we knew well teeming with people. But watching this film was more than a nostalgic experience — it grounded me in the stark reality of injustices that pervade some of the big cities that we call home.
All We Imagine as Light follows nurses Anu, Prabha and Parvathy as they navigate their personal and intertwined journeys of displacement and self-discovery.
Prabha, the head nurse, carries the weight of being estranged from her husband who fled to Germany years ago. She devotes her time to selflessly caring for her patients and watches over Anu, her younger, hopeless romantic colleague who’s pursuing a controversial romance. Parvathy, the oldest of three, grapples with becoming a widow and battles the threat of eviction. Building on their shared experiences, the three women foster an unbreakable bond of sisterhood.
All We Imagine as Light makes viewers reconsider what it means to belong to a city that offers so much, but leaves so many behind. The film portrays the struggle of women in a patriarchal society where strict gender roles and economic inequality limit their dreams and aspirations. One of the characters says, “My dreams are made of everyday things” — and the film deliberately moves away from romanticizing life in Mumbai as mainstream Indian cinema often does. Instead, it captures the beauty in quiet moments of survival, hardship and resistance amidst the overwhelming chaos of it all — a city of dreams may in fact be a city of illusions for most.
Alongside a timeless and thought-provoking story, the film is also visually stunning with melancholic blues, cool undertones and beautiful portrayals of Mumbai’s nightlife. It captures a rare sense of slowness in a city that waits for nobody, in a way that feels strangely comforting and intimate.
While some nuances of the language are naturally lost in translation — from Hindi and Malayalam to English — the emotional depth is undeniable. The film closes with the three women at a small beach shack, where Prabha finally embraces Anu’s secret relationship. Away from the city’s high rises and disorderly state, they find a moment of peace and understanding in mundane conversation, laughter and each other’s company.
All We Imagine as Light is poetic and poignant — a story that lingers in your mind long after the credits start to roll.
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