A city is never just a concrete jungle when its lanes and crossings are laced with personal memories. Payal Kapadia’s debut feature, All We Imagine As Light, which won Cannes’ Grand Prix award in 2024, is an ode to the city of Bombay. Be it Muhammad Rafi’s Bombay Meri Jaan or Bappi Lahiri’s Boombai Nagariya, Bombay is often imagined as the main character—a city that compels its inhabitants to live a fast-paced life, a city that is not forgiving and almost draining, yet most experience a sense of accomplishment in becoming a part of the hustle culture. Bombay is spoken of as almost a drug that keeps you awake at odd hours and makes you believe in the possibility that your dreams can come true. It is a city of dreamers, hustlers, and achievers, and while the glorification of the grind often takes center stage, Kapadia addresses the rampant gentrification that she has observed.
Bombay: City of dreams and nightmares
Bombay’s landscape has been significantly altered over the years, and at present the Dharavi Redevelopment Project guarantees further change. Through her film, Kapadia addresses how, in the garb of development projects, those without proper paperwork will be compelled to leave the city. The marginalized will neither be compensated nor remembered, and Bombay’s chaos will drown out their whimpers and cries. Chhaya Kadam’s Parvati could not fathom why the court would not accept her neighbor’s guarantee that she had been living in her dilapidated one-bedroom apartment for decades and insisted on her producing papers to confirm her ownership. From refusing to leave her house to surrendering when the situation got helpless, Parvati’s journey is about the fading away of the hundreds and thousands of people every year who give up or are forced to give up on their desire to create a space for themselves in the city. With a rather simple premise and familiar personal stories, it is Payal Kapadia’s use of the audio-visual medium that makes all the difference. You will be reminded of her riveting documentary film A Night of Knowing Nothing (2021) when the city is explored in documentary style and personal accounts of immigrants settled in Bombay play in the background. Her frames exude poetry where there is always something more to look for than what meets the eye.
Love: An act of rebellion
While the city affects the lives of the protagonists in more ways than one, love is often the reason behind the choices they make. Love has a different meaning in the lives of the three women, Anu, Prabha, and Parvati. For Anu (Divya Prabha), it was an act of rebellion. For Prabha (Kani Kusruti), it was patience and an unexplainable ray of hope. For Parvati, perhaps a reminder of a distant past. Familial ties now suffocated Parvati; she enjoyed having her own little space where she could be herself. A little drink once in a while, good old Hindi songs to keep her company, and the relief of never being a burden in anyone’s life—she was free. Even though she experienced a sense of despair when she had to evacuate her house, upon reaching her native village, her spirits were instantly lifted when the waves crashed at her feet.
While Parvati relished not being answerable to anyone, Prabha was caught up in societal expectations. She envied the ease with which Anu carried herself, and sometimes all she wished was to love without fear of repercussion. But she was a ‘good’ woman, a dedicated nurse, and a perfect employee, and at times her own desires left her terrified. She was clinging to a possibility that somewhere deep down she already knew had slipped away, but it was her ray of hope, her light at the end of the tunnel. Love for her was patience, perseverance, sacrifice, and nights filled with agony and bedsheets soaked in tears.
Anu’s romance was just like the instrumental music that played in the background every time she stepped out to meet her lover. The cacophony, the judgmental stares, and the snide remarks of the onlookers faded out, and all that remained was a cheerful music, an excitement to see her lover again. She knew her parents would disapprove of her relationship with a Muslim man, but she was in love, and the boundaries set by society did not bother her. There were days when she thought about the right and the wrong, but how could one stop themselves from falling in love? She was a modern Indian woman who had moved from a faraway village to a bustling city. The possibilities were endless in the new space; she could cut her hair short, she could wear clothes of her choice, and she could live freely, yet there came a moment in her life when she was reminded of societal prejudice.
A space of acceptance and warmth
Creating and nurturing a safe space becomes crucial in All We Imagine As Light. Prabha was Parvati’s safe space, providing her with constant support and warmth. Even though Prabha and Anu had their own secrets that they kept from each other, they were each other’s support system in a city that was still quite foreign to them. In an overcrowded city such as Bombay, finding private space is a challenge for lovers, and they create their own little bubbles in the corners and shades of public spaces. Anu and Shiaz (Hridhu Haroon) were no different, but the city’s cacophony often caught up with them, and they struggled to find a safe space where they could love fearlessly. In a beachside village, away from chaos, shame, and discrimination, amidst the warmth of nature, they found acceptance. Free from societal prejudice, they were just two individuals deeply in love.
The lovemaking scene will remain etched in my memory because it is not often in Indian cinema that we witness the exploration of the male anatomy. The scene was treated with utmost tenderness, and the thin line between artsy and raunchy was not crossed. An important lesson for Indian filmmakers who cannot imagine an intimate scene without objectifying women.
In a world that is increasingly becoming hostile, intolerant, and violent, Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light talks about hope, which might seem distant, but that is precisely what keeps one going. Arundhati Roy, in one of her interviews, spoke about the importance of divorcing hope from reason. You cannot be reasonable and also hopeful; sometimes you simply have to believe because there is no other way around it. Our protagonists hold onto hope, or their interpretation of it, and so must we, even on days when everything seems bleak.
