When the “spirit of Mumbai” is spoken about, to signify the city’s imagined resilience especially after some major calamity, it is always about the multitude. It is assumed that the faceless common citizens, who do not have the luxury to stay inside safely, venture out due to this spirit. Payal Kapadia’s debut feature All We Imagine as Light doesn’t make such assumptions about the less privileged, rather it brings them to the centre and gives them a voice.
In fact, the film begins by giving voices to these multitudes, before it settles on the three protagonists. In a sequence which reminds one of Kapadia’s documentary roots, we hear from these voices what the city means to the thousands who migrate to it from all over the country to make a living. Malayali nurses Prabha (Kani Kusruti) and Anu (Divya Prabha), and Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam), an employee at the hospital they are working in, belong to that tribe.
Also Read | Politics of aesthetics: How ‘Laapataa Ladies’ got a shot at the Oscars But the film is really not about their work that they do or their daily struggles; what shines bright instead is their interior lives, their desires, disappointments, confusions and even biases. Prabha has a weary air about her, as someone who has been in the city for quite some time, with the recurring worry about a husband who has literally forgotten about her after the first few days of marriage. The last time they spoke was a year ago, after he went for a job in Germany.
Ma.
