Rating: NR | Runtime: 118 minutes
Release Date: October 2nd, 2024 (France) / November 15th, 2024 (USA)
Studio: Condor / Janus Films / Sideshow
Director(s): Payal Kapadia
Writer(s): Payal Kapadia

You have to believe the illusion or else you’ll go mad.

Spoken by one of the nameless people we assume writer/director Payal Kapadia interviewed for their take on city living after growing up in the country, the above words resonated with me in light of everything that was been happening politically here in America with citizens continuing to vote against their own best interests. It’s easy to say they are stupid or stubborn, but a lot of it does probably come from the fear of discovering there’s no way out of their current predicament. So, they believe in the illusion that they deserve more rather than enough. They feed into the idea of an American Dream that may never have existed at all because resigning oneself to that truth is too horrible to fathom.

The sentiments aren’t quite steeped in the same meaning where it concerns All We Imagine as Light, but there is still that notion of doubling down into one’s own sunk cost fallacy since the prospect of admitting it’s time to start over feels like an unacceptable alternative. Many of the people who’ve come to Mumbai to find success and happiness are left with only struggle. There’s the home sickness. The financial issues. The loneliness. Dr. Manoj (Azees Nedumangad) wonders if the city doesn’t actually have anything to offer him. Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam) has two decades of her life erased by a construction company looking to evict her without compensation. Mumbai might have taken more than it gave.

While those two exist on polar opposite ends of the spectrum (he’s unrooted enough to cut ties without consequences and she’s deeply rooted yet unable to stop external forces from digging her up), it’s the two women in-between who lead Kapadia’s feature narrative debut. Prabha (Kani Kusruti) is entrenched as a respected nurse who fulfills her duty as a Hindu woman in society and as a Hindu wife in a marriage with a husband she’s only seen for about a week before he went back to Germany for work. Anu (Divya Prabha) is a new recruit basking in the freedom Mumbai has to offer from oppressive parents seeking to plan her future for her. The former has yet to fully embrace the opportunity to discover an identity of her own while the latter might have embraced it too much.

The contrasting parallels connecting these roommates are therefore the film’s backbone. Prabha enjoys the company of Dr. Manoj, but would never consider romantic feelings since she’s already married—regardless of how that marriage is in name only. Anu sneaks off with Shiaz (Hridhu Haroon), a Muslim boy whose parents would never accept a Hindu woman just as hers would never accept him. Tradition becomes Prabha’s prison. Religion is Anu’s. The former is ruled by the guilt of straying from who she is as a wife while the latter is led by the desire to never regret missing out on an opportunity for love. Both are confused and worried about unseen futures dictated by people other than themselves.

It’s interesting then that Parvaty becomes a sort of guide towards answers while falling victim to the same fate. She doesn’t want to leave the city, but she has no choice. Her fight is a lost cause in the eyes of the law and she has zero allies to change its mind in a world where the company kicking her out pitches prospective new residents with the slogan that “privilege should only be given to the privileged.” Prabha and Anu are able to see Parvaty as cautionary tale and aspiration. By witnessing what has happened to her, they can project themselves onto that path to consider if following suit wouldn’t be so bad. Her village serves as a paradise of possibility by giving them the chance to step outside of who they’re supposed to be so they can decide what it is they want.

The juxtaposition is obvious. Mumbai is noise and haste. Parvaty’s home is calm serenity. Where she laments the lack of electricity in the city after hers is shut off in a bid to force her out quicker, the lack of it on the beach isn’t an issue at all. There’s privacy here too. Anu and Shiaz can walk the sand without worrying about who might see them instead of needing to hide in the trees to steal a kiss. Prabha can run down to the water with worrying about mixed company whereas just the attempt by Manoj to talk to her forces a calculated pose and cadence so as not to be labeled a “flirt.” The place that’s supposed to provide the potential for your dreams to come true proves claustrophobic as a result. The city doesn’t help level the economic playing field. It often exacerbates the chasm.

Kusruti and Prabha (the actor who plays Anu, not the character played by Kusruti) are great in these roles. You really get a sense of the conflict that drives them and the uncertainty of letting go from convention when toeing the line is quite literally a necessity for survival. It’s an empowering journey for both characters too considering their evolution from following the lead of the men in their lives to forcing those men to adhere to their terms instead. And their epiphanies arrive in profoundly warm, mystical fashion compared to the cold, industrialized complex of the start—a cave of sculptures and lovers’ declarations for Anu and a fantasized reunion for Prabha. By escaping the grind, these women can reset, turn the page, and take control.

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Kani Kusruti and Divya Prabha in ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT; courtesy of Janus Films.