Payal Kapadia’s incandescent, poetically titled film, All We Imagine as Light, is gearing up for its Oscar chukker. It is an India, France, Netherlands, Luxembourg and Italy co-production, with France’s Thomas Hakim and Julian Graff  (Petit Chaos) as primary producers, along with Zico Maitra and team’s Chalk & Cheese Films. The film was on the French shortlist for their Oscar entry, before they chose Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Perez; now it’s up to India. It is so revealing that big bucks Bollywood did not care to back this shining jewel, a debut fiction feature that won the Grand Prix at Cannes; it was the first Indian film in 30 years to be in Cannes Competition, and led by a woman director at that; it was also at the Toronto International Film Festival, TIFF. But Telugu actor Rana Daggubati’s Spirit Media acquired its India distribution rights, and is theatrically releasing the film this weekend in Kerala, to qualify for India’s Oscar entry for Best International Feature Film. Kapadia’s A Night of Knowing Nothing had already won the Golden Eye for Best Documentary at Cannes in 2021.

All We Imagine as Light is an exquisite film on love, loneliness and loss in the big city. It explores the sisterly solidarity between two Kerala nurses Prabha (Kani Kusruti) and Anu (Divya Prabha), who work in a Mumbai hospital, along with their colleague Parvathy (Chhaya Kadam). Prabha’s estranged husband in Germany suddenly sends her a shiny red rice cooker: is this a parting gift? Meanwhile, when she is tenderly wooed by a hospital doctor (Aziz Nedumangad), she is unable to accept his love. In contrast, the younger, bindaas Anu has an affair with her Muslim lover, Shiaz (Hridhu Haroon). When Parvathy’s house is being demolished by greedy developers, and she is forced to return to her village, Prabha and Anu go along. Here, away from the pressure cooker of the city, on the green Konkan coast, there are scenes suggesting dream-like metaphors, as the women bond and come closer to the emotional truth of their desires. I will never forget the silent tear on Kani Kusruti’s cheek when yet again, a tender love flows into her life. And how fascinating that Payal Kapadia, a director with roots in north west India, should direct a film in Malayalam, from India’s extreme south, with some Hindi.