Cannes '24: India's 'All We Imagine As Light' receives 8-minute standing ovation

Payal Kapadia and the cast of her film All We Imagine As Light walked the red carpet at the ongoing Cannes 2024 Film Festival They broke Indias 30year of not being a part of the festivals main competition Palme dOr The team left quite an impression on international critics at its world premiere at Cannes on Thursday nightAll We Imagine is the first Indian movie in 30 years to qualify for the festivals competition section which makes Kapadia a contender for the prestigious Palme dOr The eightminute standing ovation at the end of the films screening was definitely among the longest of this edition of the film festivalThe team of the film including Chhaya Kadam Hridhu Haroon Kani Kusruti Payal Kapadia Divya Prabha Ranabir Das Julien Graff Zico Maitra and Thomas Hakim walked the red carpet in stunning outfits However it was the team dancing and enjoying their big moment that won heartsKani Kusruti stood out with her watermelon clutch which is also a call for ceasefire in wartorn Gaza Divya Prabha looked a world apart from her character in the film in her classy copperhued gown and Hridu Haroon appeared in a veshti and long embellished kurta Kapadia and her coproducercinematographer Ranabir Das however settled for formal blacks Lumiegravere Cameacutera Montez les Marches ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT ndash PAYAL KAPADIACannes2024 Competition SeacutelectionOfficielle httpstcoE7PzSoKCAOmdash Festival de Cannes Festival_Cannes May 23 2024Kapadia is in competition with European heavyweights such as Jacques Audiard and Yorgos Lanthimos American auteurs David Cronenberg and Paul Schrader and Asian visionary Jia Zhangke as IndieWire reminds usWhether the film gets the trophy or not it did leave international critics impressed after the screening with Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian showering praise on it for its freshness and emotional clarity and comparing Kapadias fluent and absorbing storytelling with Satyajit Rays in his classics Mahanagar and Aranyer Din RatriBefore the screening the internationally funded films star cast adorned the red carpet on the steps of the Palais du Festival with KThe early reviews to pour in after the screening were glowing In her review of the gorgeous and absorbing film Sophie MonkKaufman of IndieWire wrote This casual everyday vignette is brimming with a sensuality the rain the clothes the food the women that people dont tend to notice when caught up in the rhythm of life It takes a snapshot from a photographer removed from the situation to make you realise how full these moments areIn the words of Fionnuala Halligan This fiction debut from a talented documentarian brings to mind the work of Lucrecia Martel or Alice Rohrwacher yet theres a strong romantic streak that also calls to mind Wong Karwais great love affair with the city of Hong KongAnd Jordan Mintzer of The Hollywood Reporter could resist comparing the languorous film with the cinema the world now expects from India He commented All We Imagine as Light is about as far as you can get from the stylistics of Bollywoods masala musicals even if there is one short and memorable impromptu dance scene toward the end And yet its story of women looking for love and happiness in a calamitous world brings to mind those popular Mumbaiset movies in which heroines suffer plenty of heartbreak before things eventually work outWill the jury share the emotions behind the gushing reception to All We Imagine or hear the eightminute standing ovation Will Kapadia come back home with the Palme dOr We will know only when the awards are announcedwith inputs from IANS