All We Imagine As Light
Updated: Feb 23, 2025
A sombre and gentle Mumbai story of loneliness, love, and freedom with an incredibly nuanced performance by Kani Kusruti.
ayal Kapadia crafts a breezy internal metaphysical journey of relationship and traditional values juxtaposed between the two central characters, Prabha who is holding out for her absent husband she hasn’t seen in years, while her younger roommate, Anu (Divya Prabha) can't hide her untraditional romance with a Muslim boy Shiaz (Hridhu Haroon), a relationship that will be rejected by her parents and also by Prabha. In the crowded and claustrophobic district of Mumbai where they both work and live, there is no room for dreams and breaking the societal rules, until they must help a colleague, Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam) relocate to the shore where the possibility of finding their happiness might come true.
Kani Kusruti performance is complex and restrained, but quietly communicative, Prabha goes about her days with dutiful attitude to her job, and long-distance marriage, when the chance of a present relationship seems to be insight, she stays true to her vows though she hides a desperate longing and sadness for a love that no longer exists. The arrival of a German rice cooker sent by her husband is the only contact Prabha has, in one moving seen where she has a long embrace with the cooker in order feel warm presence.
The cinematography captures of stoic crowdedness with the centre of Mumbai mostly shot in the night-time where the apartment lights emit a hazy glow. Moving to the coast, a bright paradisical dreaminess takes over where the characters have space and time to walk and breath for themselves.
What's most soothing about All We Imagine as Light is how it never forces you into the character's sadness but gradually eases you into their walks of life and you gradually find yourself entwined into their emotional and mental struggles with an optimistic answer. It’s subtle magic trick of profound comfort and empathy.
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