‘All We Imagine as Light’ Movie Review - Payal Kapadia’s City of Illusion Offers Uneven Pleasures

For me, Payal Kapadia's best film has to be her 2014 short film Watermelon, Fish and Half Ghost. It observes people living in a chawl, and this observation is part documentary-like and part supernatural fantasy. It's also a romance, a tragedy, a comedy. The amateurish visuals, like that of two bodies going toward heaven, are funny as well as imaginative. The voiceover, delivered through quiet whispers, gives you the impression of listening to a whimsical story narrated by a kid. The movie evokes many emotions from within the audience; sometimes, you feel multiple things at once (this happens during the climax). Kapadia's next short, The Last Mango Before the Monsoon, differs from Watermelon, Fish, and Half Ghost, yet it looks like a Payal Kapadia film. In fact, if you watch one Payal Kapadia film, you will understand what to expect from her other films. She mines poetry from an atmosphere that feels melancholic. Her images are quiet and reflective, and when they work, they put you in a trance-like state that's soothing. You see angels and animals in smoke; you see clouds in the shape of a ship.

Kapadia's unanimously acclaimed All We Imagine As Light features the characteristic elements found in a Payal Kapadia movie. The "half ghost" from the 2014 short film comes in the form of a legless husband of an elderly woman (there, too, the spirit was the husband of an old lady). The cat from Afternoon Clouds is now pregnant with twins, and the clouds that in The Last Mango Before the Monsoon drifted from a serene forest valley to a city now carry a lover's kiss. Additionally, the image of a man dancing at the end of A Night of Knowing Nothing is replaced with the image of a boy dancing at the end of All We Imagine As Light. The cartoonish doodles, meanwhile, are replaced with the photographs of suitors. Of course, let's not forget the voiceovers employed to express the inner thoughts of the people on the screen. The voices during the opening scenes of All We Imagine As Light inform us why some people choose to come to Mumbai. No, we don't hear the clichéd tales of dream-chasers who had arrived with a meager Rs. 10 in their pockets to fulfill their dream of acting. What the movie tells us is that these impecunious individuals simply aspire to survive in the bustling city. They are not seeking fame or glory; they only want enough money to have a roof over their head, buy food, and pay their bills.

Mumbai, unfortunately, fails to take care of these necessities or at least that of Parvaty's (Chhaya Kadam). A builder wants to demolish her chawl to build a skyscraper. When she, with nurse Prabha (Kani Kusruti), goes to a lawyer for legal help, he throws his hands up in the air, saying that Parvaty needs papers to prove that she is a Chawl resident. What about a neighbor's statement? No, it won't help because, in this bleak world, papers have more value than humans. Prabha suggests that Parvaty go and live with her son, but the latter refuses. "He already lives in a tiny room with his wife and kid. I don't want anyone breathing down my neck," says Parvaty. She further comments that she and Prabha are the same: "We're better off alone." Prabha's face indicates that she doesn't fully agree with this statement. She would like to hold the arm of her lover - that husband who works in Germany, for instance. Prabha had an arranged marriage. There was neither romance nor much conversation between the couple. Then, one day, he left to work in a foreign land. Prabha finds love and comfort in the company of Manoj (Azees Nedumangad), a doctor, but she doesn't get into a relationship with him due to her marital status. Prabha belongs to a generation that prioritizes traditional values over personal freedom. Notice how she tells some students to toughen up when they react negatively to a smell.

Prabha's roommate, Anu (Divya Prabha), is young and has different values and opinions. She has a Muslim boyfriend named Shiaz (Hridhu Haroon), with whom she makes out without shame or embarrassment. Unlike Prabha, Anu doesn't live according to the rigid societal rules, which frown upon a woman who has sex before marriage, but the society or, more accurately, Anu's parents push her to choose a groom of their choice. The other workers in the hospital gossip about Anu's affair. Prabha tries to avoid such nonsense, but her close-minded world collides with Anu's openness when the young nurse forces Manoj to pet a cat by touching his hand. The feelings of jealousy followed by a sharp criticism feel so strong, so bitter that it pierces something deep within the audience. Kapadia, during certain intimate moments, like when Prabha hugs a rice cooker or when Anu and Shiaz have sex, takes us so close to her characters that we get a first-hand experience of their joy and loneliness. And when Kapadia layers the streets of Mumbai with forlorn, personal voices, she turns the images into lyrics of a gloomy poem. No wonder the color blue dominates almost every frame here.

However, the main problem with Kapadia is that she isn't able to sustain this poetic rhythm. Except for Watermelon, Fish, and Half Ghost, all the other Payal Kapadia films start and stop so frequently that they almost become static. As a result, even images with high visual imagination become tedious. The shots of all those brightly lit Mumbai streets in All We Imagine As Light have momentum, but they, too, eventually feel monotonous. We get what they are trying to convey, and a banal remark like, "This is not a City of Dreams, but a City of Illusion" doesn't work in the film's favor. I think one of the reasons behind All We Imagine As Light's universal acclaim has to be its obviousness (combine it with pathos, and critics will not only feel intelligent but also pour out their own sadness, their own loneliness, which is why an okayish '96 and an unremarkable Past Lives receive so much love and attention). Prabha and Parvaty throw stones at a poster with the words, "Class is a privilege reserved for the privileged." The message is too on-the-nose and takes you out of the narrative. Instead of the characters, you suddenly see the filmmaker preaching to the choir. Still, the Mumbai scenes at least have a sense of momentum. As soon as the story shifts to Parvaty's village, it loses its visual charm. The movie begins suffering from a state of stillness. This is not the kind of stillness that motivates introspection. Rather, it neuters the flow of imagination. So when Prabha talks to her "husband," you don't feel as if you are in a dream world. You become confused because you see the scene as something unfolding in the real world.

Shiaz is a Muslim, but the movie isn't interested in dealing with the ongoing religious politics  (what it means to be a Muslim in today's India). Kapadia disconnects the characters from their surroundings, except when it suits the narrative at hand. Anu and Shiaz eat at a restaurant but don't interact with the waiter. Anu shops for a burkha without dealing with the shopkeeper. She wanted to be an air hostess but took up this profession of a nurse out of fear of her father. What does she think about her workplace, her colleagues, or the job? Parvaty mentions that she had always wanted to eat at a restaurant. Forget its name; we don't even learn what she orders. The characters might as well be placed against CGI backdrops. This incuriosity, this detachment, is the reason why the shops and the streets, for all their "poetic force," eventually look like aesthetic embellishments. The voices, on the other hand, tell us not to be fooled by all the glitter.

Despite all the sadness and struggle, All We Imagine As Light (A Night of Knowing Nothing, too) ends on a note of optimism. This onscreen hope and happiness is inextricable from the one that can be observed in the real world. By now, we all know about the difficulties Kapadia faced as an FTII member and as a filmmaker. Nonetheless, she is now a global star and a Twitter rockstar who used social media to bring attention to her Grand Prix winner while also informing people to watch her film in the correct aspect ratio in the theater. Kapadia's journey looks like that of an underdog. It's thrilling, it's fascinating - it deserves a documentary of its own.

Final Score- [6/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times