Keswick Film Club - Reviews - All We Imagine As Light

"Mumbai is sometimes called the City of Dreams; I think of it as the City of Illusion" – so says the voiceover in this award-winning Indian (almost docu-) drama, voted the best film of 2024 by the BFI. We are shown the poor end of the bustling, ultra-busy megalopolis, where three people's dreams might come true, or prove to be just illusions.

Prabha is a senior nurse whose husband has disappeared off to Germany and not been heard from for over a year... but she still hopes he will return, turning down the chance of love from a doctor – "But I am married", she says.

Anu is a Hindu trainee nurse who is secretly in love with Shiaz, a Muslim boy, whilst her parents are busy arranging a marriage for her – "You can't avoid your fate", Prabha tells her.

Parvaty is a hospital cook who is threatened with eviction from her shanty dwelling of 22 years, due to be developed for the super-rich of Mumbai. Prabha tries to come to her aid, arranging the help of a solicitor, but Parvaty decides to give up and return to her home village by the sea.

The film moves with the three of them to this village, where we see Prabha give the kiss of life to a drowning man who, in her imagination, turns into her husband, whilst Anu and Shiaz find the space to make love at last and we leave them all chatting in a café on the beach... is this all a dream, or an illusion..?