On October 17, Payal Kapadia, best known for her debut film All we Imagine as Light which won at the Cannes Grand Prix, came to Mumbai for a press conference that was held jointly with actor and producer Rana Daggubati, who gave her company on the dais. This was Kapadia's first press conference in India, held in a suburban studio in Mumbai and one could immediately gather how comfortable the FTII pass-out was feeling, having come back to the city she grew up in. Mumbai is also the place that gave her the inspiration and context for her stories, narratives and plots that mark her essential style in the documentary-indie-arthouse genre. That it took five years for All We Imagine as Light to finally see the light of the day, was the most obvious first question posed to the director.
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Interestingly, Kapadia spoke at length about her love-hate relationship with Mumbai and how the city played a crucial role in shaping her perspectives towards life. It was while living here, and frequenting hospitals for a family member during her college days as a budding filmmaker that she first processed the multi-layered dynamics that come into play inside a hospital setup and how migrant women working as nurses negotiate diverse spaces, at the intersection of the self and the institution.
Broadly, her film touches upon concepts of migration, workspace friendship, familial dynamics and more, but crucially places gender dynamics at the heart of its narrative, viewed through the macro lens of Mumbai, which encourages and exhausts, in turns, as it pushes you to exploit the limits of your own potential.
Like Kapadia, the city has inspired a legion of filmmakers over the years, all of who have romanced with the very idea of Mumbai, ascribing it terms that emerge from their own experiences - "resilient," "eternally in speed," "generous," "unforgiving," too demanding," and so many more. Thankfully, Kapadia's latest doesn't zoom in on the city's dark side - violence and shootouts, political rivalries and gang wars, poverty and ambition, but continues to train its focus on the softer aspects of relationships, nostalgia, struggles of settling into newer spaces, and more.
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"Mumbai is a storehouse of stories, there is so much to explore and focus on. I am sure I'll do at least two more big films based on this thriving city in the years to come and hopefully this time it won't take as much as five years for me to make them," she said, in a response to THE WEEK, at the conference.
"When migrants, especially women nurses come here from Kerala to work in hospitals, there is so much they leave behind and so much they look forward to. How, despite not being well versed in Hindi, they learn and adapt to Bambaiya Hindi and also imbibe the city's essentially fast-paced culture just in order to survive and be able to help their families back home. In a sense, this film's narrative is such that it can be placed in any geographical settings and the message will resonate with everyone, whether one has gone from India to America or simply migrated cities in one's own country," said Kapadia.
Set for its Indian release on November 22, 2024, after a run at film festivals and wide theatrical opening in France and Italy, All We Imagine as Light will also be released in the UK and the US in November.