All We Imagine as Light

The light and subtleties of the everyday life of Mumbai’s working class are thoroughly examined and commended with warmth, zest, and compassion through the lens of a young Indian filmmaker, a Grand Prix award winner at this year’s Cannes Film Festival for her captivating fiction debut. Honing in on two roommates, both working at a hospital in town (one as a novice nurse, the other as her supervisor), as well as on a recently retired colleague of theirs, this incredibly nuanced film revolves around the mundane moments of connection and distress, hope and disillusionment. The first is married – through matchmaking – to a man living in faraway Germany, while being closely pursued by a doctor in her immediate surroundings. The second keeps dating a Muslim man, but tries her hardest to conceal her relationship from her Hindu family. As for the third, she is abruptly confronted with the threat of eviction from her apartment. As the camera shifts from the ruckus of the metropolis to the tranquility of a seaside resort, every frame evokes an expressive, yet absurd lyrical naturalism, converting the act of daydreaming into a tool of resistance and transformation.