All We Imagine as Light

Kani Kusnuti

I found Payal Kapadia's All We Imagine as Light to be worthy of the plaudits lavished upon it. This fictional feature debut outlines the lives of three female workers at a Mumbai hospital. The film balances melodrama with realism, belying Ms. Kapadia background in documentary work.The main character is a sharp nurse of a certain age named Prabha (Kani Kusnuti). Prabha seems stressed and uptight and we soon learn why: her husband emigrated to Germany for work over a year ago and she has not heard from him in some time. Prabha shares a small flat with the younger woman named Anu. Anu (Diva Prabha) is more liberated in outlook than Prabha and is carrying on a hot romance with a young Muslim man named Shiaz. The third of the female trio is Parvathy (Chhaya Kadam), an older woman who Prabha attempts to aid when she faces eviction.

The other main character of the film is Mumbai in all its polyglot glory, gritty but bursting with pockets of sensual delight. Kapadia constantly repeats the motif  of his characters commuting to work in the crowded and bustling metropolis. Unlike most US medical shows, All We Imagine as Light does not hit us over the head with medical procedures or Noah Wylie barking at his minions. Kapadia stresses the little touches of humanity that enliven the work day. She even manages to inject some humor to leaven the melodrama. I enjoyed Prabha and Anu reviewing eligible bachelors on a dating app and won't soon forget Prabha instructing her younger charges on the proper way to dispose of a placenta. 

The film shifts locale for the final third. Parvathy decides she is through with Mumbai and returns to her native coastal village. Prabha and Anu help her move, though Anu is also motivated into taking this opportunity to have a hot, for Indian cinema, tryst with her lover. This sojourn gives the characters a way to face their past and future. Anu and Shiaz pledge to trumpet their love, no matter the consequences. Prabha, who earlier in the film slut shamed Anu for her lifestyle, moves towards acceptance of the lovers. In the film's only sequence that feels like a magically realistic misstep, Prabha briefly reunites with her husband in order to let him go. All in all, though, All We Imagine as Light was one of the better films released in 2024.