All We Imagine as Light

A movie about two roommates who work as nurses at a hospital in Mumbai, and their friend who also works at the same hospital in the cafeteria. The film unfolds mostly through shortened utterances and fragmented dialogues—sentences that rarely come out in full, as if these two women are never quite able to speak their own truth. One is bound to a husband who migrated to Germany soon after their arranged marriage. The other is entangled with a Muslim boyfriend while trying to escape her parents' efforts to arrange a marriage for her. The third friend is, surprisingly, the most free and is the only one who speaks more naturally in the film. After being evicted, she fights with her landlord and eventually returns to her hometown. I think the beauty—and perhaps the shortcoming—of the film lies in these strained dialogues. They feel like an extension of the characters’ inner struggles, and over time, the viewer learns to accept them as part of the film's emotional language. But they also make the movie more cryptic and not always very engaging. If you feel a connection to the characters, you're more likely to tolerate—and even appreciate—their pace. The acting is very strong, and overall, the movie is a pleasant watch.

Relating the throes of two nurses and a cook working at their hospital, Payal Kapadia's Grand Prix-winner at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival is a somber yet dreamlike urban anecdote of womanhood entrapped by Mumbai societal expectations and emboldened to break free.

The only faults in this movie are where it is too real. A beautiful, somber, but expansive view of ternary aspects of love shot with a sensitive eye.

A collection of great imagery and acting, technically impeccable but with practically nothing happening throughout the course of the movie all the way upto a somewhat abrupt ending. Maybe one day I'll come to understand the insane hype for this movie. Nothing fresh for an Indian audience that has seen stories of lower middle class hardships and dystopian depictions of Mumbai and metropolitan cities multiple times prior.

Boring. Not “profound”, “meditative” or “thoughtful”. Just an aimless “story”, an endless series of static shots, and characters I simply didn’t care about.

My partner and I tried to watch it two different nights and fell asleep both times…😵

An exceptional and intricately woven tale of three women - one widowed, one estranged, and one fiercely in youthful love - from distinct walks of life. A big applause to Payal Kapadia for the picturesque narration and stunning cinematography. As always, Kani Kusruti delivers her role with unsurpassable perfection. The picture's resounding splendour is also due to Divya Prabha's and Chhaya Kadam's immaculate portrayals of their characters. The humble shots were by far the most stirring - the bustling stations filled with the chaotic common folk, the humbling cityscape subtly infused with deep conversations about life, and the poetic glimpses of the waves and little sea creatures all capturing our souls. There is an astounding beauty in the minimal flow of life. Our characters deal with the pain of loss, grief, estrangement, and the fear of being unconventional. Yet, they gracefully navigate through life's hardships, not flawlessly, but just as any other raw and imperfect being would. This story is told with no dramatic embellishments; instead, it is presented as it is relatable. The emotional burn is slow and gentle, and at the end of the cinematic marvel, it leaves you feeling fulfilled.

I appreciated the movie's commitment to realism for most of the runtime but that does mean that when it opts for sentimentality, especially in the ending, it rings false and inconsistent.

I didn't even knew before this film the existence of the Malayalam language. Very slow paced film and some type of scenes I haven't seen before in an Indian film

I'm from Mumbai. The movie has so many factual holes but the most ironic thing is the pace of the movie about Maxium City. 🙄