Film Review: ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT: A Character-Driven Drama That Will Move Audiences Deeply [NYFF 2024]

All We Imagine as Light Review

All We Imagine as Light (2024) Film Review from the 62nd Annual New York Film Festival, a movie written and directed by Payal Kapadia and starring Kani Kusruti, Divya Prabha, Chhaya Kadam, Hridhu Haroon, Azees Nedumangad, Anand Sami, Madhu Raja and Bipin Nadlarni.

Filmmaker Payal Kapadia’s touching All We Imagine as Light is a heartwarming story of friendship, love and the quest to move forward when confronted with difficult and challenging circumstances. It is anchored by two powerful performances from its stars, Kani Kusruti and Divya Prabha, as nurses in Mumbai who find that life’s daily challenges can be a bit overwhelming at times.

Kusruti’s character, Nurse Prabha, is a seasoned professional who manages a long-distance marriage as she works hard to meet her day-to-day challenges. Divya Prabha’s Anu is a bit younger and has a hard time meeting the rent as she asks her more established colleague for an extension on paying the rent. As another nurse character, Chhaya Kadam plays her role as Parvaty extremely well but the movie works best when it focuses on the bond between Nurses Prabha and Anu.

The plot thread of the movie which is the most compelling is that of Anu’s relationship with a young man named Shiaz (Hridhu Haroon). Anu is not looking to conform to any set standards in her life and feels like she is trapped in a world where the expectations for her are not in accordance with her true desires. She yearns to experience passion but at her own pace, not the pace of the world in which she lives that has certain expectations for her.

Nurse Prabha’s marriage is the type of relationship that initially seems safe but because it is distanced, certain questions are raised concerning the validity of it. Another doctor (Azees Nedumangad) stands as a possibility for her to get to know better but Nurse Prabha is a woman of integrity who must stand by her own ideals, yet she feels conflicted over the course of the film due to the situations that occur throughout.

Parvaty is a catalyst to move the action to a village where the three nurses end up as they try to make sense of their lives. Anand Sami plays a man who drowns but is saved by Nurse Prabha. However, this gentleman may have other wishes to get to know the woman who saved him. Nurse Prabha must stick by her ideals and confront this situation in a proper way.

Anu copies with her attempts to come to terms with the reality of her relationship with Shiaz. There are beautiful intimate moments between Anu and Shiaz. As Anu worries about her family’s wants versus her own, Anu finds in Shiaz a man to awaken her both spiritually and sexually.

All We Imagine as Light is the type of drama that tugs at the heartstrings but it feels unique thanks to the fresh perspectives the writer/director, Payal Kapadia, employs here. This would have been an easier story to tell if Nurse Prabha found romance with another suitor or if Anu just gave up on her inner desires and followed her heart to love Shiaz. This film is more complex than that. It asks audiences to see the different levels of sophistication that are involved with the human experience, regardless of the cultural background of the characters. Anyone can relate to this film even though a big part of it rests on the character’s moral values which sometimes derive from their cultural upbringing.

The performances are terrific. Kani Kusruti is sensational as the wise Nurse Prabha while Divya Prabha brings to life her own character, Anu, in such a way that one can sympathize with her predicament. Beside them, Chhaya Kadam more than holds her own in a less showy role but a substantial one nonetheless.

When one considers the bond between Anu and Shiaz, one may think they know where All We Imagine as Light is headed but the movie takes no predictable path in its execution. Instead, it offers the audience the opportunity to be enlightened by the non-conventional paths the film takes. Though the nature of the female bonding sometimes feels a bit familiar, the movie is often able to spin the material in different directions that feed off the relationship which is formed between the two central characters in the film. It may be a slice-of-life but it’s one with a lot of detailed underlying complexity.

All We Imagine as Light may have its faults. It feels like it goes on a little long at nearly two hours in length and some of the supporting characters feel like they’re there merely to function as plot devices more than as actual human beings, Still, the movie overcomes these flaws through sincere storytelling and remarkable acting to offer audiences an unforgettable experience.

In the end, Payal Kapadia has created a multi-faceted tale centered on two different women who find that their lives are changed forever by embracing the possibilities life has to offer. Those possibilities aren’t always the easiest and most convenient solutions and therein lies the power of the story Kapadia has chosen to tell. This film is a winner.

Rating: 7.5/10

Leave your thoughts on this All We Imagine as Light review and the film below in the comments section. Readers seeking to support this type of content can visit our Patreon Page and become one of FilmBook’s patrons. Readers seeking more New York Film Festival news can visit our New York Film Festival Page, our Film Festival Page, and our Film Festival Facebook Page.

Readers seeking more film reviews can visit our Movie Review Page, our Movie Review Twitter Page, our Movie Review Reddit Page, and our Movie Review Facebook Page.

Want up-to-the-minute notifications? FilmBook staff members publish articles by Email, Mobile App, Google News, Feedly, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, Reddit, Telegram, Mastodon, Flipboard, and Threads.