Payal Kapadia and the cast of her film, “All We Imagine As Light” walked the red carpet of the ongoing Cannes Film Festival 2024. They broke India’s 30 years without being part of the festival’s main competition: the Palme d’Or. The team made a big impression on international critics, at its world premiere in Cannes on Thursday night.
“All We Imagine…” is the first Indian film in 30 years to qualify for the festival’s competition section, making Kapadia a candidate for the prestigious Palme d’Or. The eight-minute ovation at the end of the screening of the film was undoubtedly one of the longest of this edition of the film festival.
The film’s team consisting of 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 hearts.
Kani Kusruti stood out with her watermelon bag, which is also a call for a ceasefire in war-torn Gaza. Divya Prabha looked a world apart from her character in the film with her elegant dress in copper tones; and Hridu Haroon appeared in a veshti and a long embellished kurta. Kapadia and her co-producer and cinematographer Ranabir Das, however, settled for formal blacks.
Kapadia competes with “European heavyweights such as Jacques Audiard and Yorgos Lanthimos, with American authors David Cronenberg and Paul Schrader and with the Asian visionary Jia Zhangke”, as “IndieWire” recalls.
Whether the film takes the trophy or not, it left international critics impressed after the screening, with Peter Bradshaw of “The Guardian” praising it for its “freshness and emotional clarity” and comparing Kapadia’s “fluid and absorbing” narration . with Satyajit Ray in his classics, `Mahanagar` and `Aranyer Din Ratri`.
Before the screening, the star cast of the internationally financed film graced the red carpet on the steps of the Festival Palace, with K
The first reviews that came after the screening were enthusiastic. In her review of the “beautiful, absorbing film,” IndieWire’s Sophie Monk-Kaufman wrote: This casual, everyday vignette brims with a sensuality (the rain, the clothes, the food, the women) that people don’t tend to notice. when you’re caught up in the rhythm of life. “It takes a snapshot from a photographer removed from the situation to make you realize how full these moments are.”
In the words of Fionnuala Halligan, “This fictional debut from a talented documentary filmmaker recalls the work of Lucrecia Martel or Alice Rohrwacher, but there is a strong romantic vein that also recalls Wong Kar-wai’s great love story with the city of Hong Kong. “
And Jordan Mintzer of “The Hollywood Reporter” might resist comparing the languid film to the cinema the world now expects from India. He commented: “All We Imagine as Light” is about as far from the style of Bollywood masala musicals as you can get, even if there is a brief and memorable improvised dance scene towards the end. And yet, its story of women searching for love and happiness in a calamitous world reminds us of those popular films set in Mumbai, in which the heroines suffer many heartaches before things finally work out.”
Will the jury share the emotions behind the effusive reception of “All We Imagine…”, or will they listen to the eight-minute ovation? Will Kapadia return home with the Palme d’Or? We will only know when the awards are announced.
(with inputs from IANS)