The very soft-spoken but enthusiastic Payal Kapadia, the director of All We Imagine As Light, became the first Indian to win the prestigious Grand Prix Award at the Cannes Film Festival this year. She was in Kolkata on a short trip ahead of the film’s theatrical release. The three protagonists—nurses Prabha, Anu and hospital cook Parvaty—played by Kani Kusruti, Divya Prabha and Chhaya Kadam respectively, form the three pillars of the film that is set in Mumbai. We spoke to Payal, who wishes to make a trilogy on Mumbai.
What made you make a film like this?
I wanted to make a film on the companionship between women in a metropolis like Mumbai and their friendships in other cities. Especially in a city like Mumbai, which is large and expensive, where you have a roommate, whom you may not like, with whom one might encounter language barrier. Here, there is this Marathi woman, and two Malayali nurses—they can be friends too. The different kinds of relationships, or the possibility of friendships was one of the main reasons to choose this story.
Is this film an ode to nurses?
Yes, this film is an ode to a sister (nurse), as well as my grandmother. Because when I started writing the film, I met some nurses, and I became close to one particular nurse. She was very patient with me. She taught me about placenta and all such things. So, I kind of thank her through the film.
Was there any inspiration for the plot?
I grew up in a family with different women, and generational differences among them was something I found very interesting. Whatever age we might be in, we always tend to look at our past and future. Like the three women in the movie, we too make friends with women from different generations. They may give good advices at one time, bad ones at other times, or even judge you. This is something that I faced a lot while growing up and wanted to address it in the film.
A gradual shift took place in me over the course of the film. When I started writing the film, I was around Anu’s age. But now as the film releases, I am closer to Prabha’s age. Earlier, I was much more empathetic towards Anu’s character and thought about why Prabha was behaving this way. But as I grew older, I became kinder towards Prabha, because she has a lot of baggage, and we need to empathise with her. So, as you grow older, you feel differently about people.
When was the story conceived and when was it filmed?
I wrote this some 7-8 years back and wanted to make a short film. I made another film in between, but this one was always on my mind. I did a lot more research, met many nurses, a lot of people from Mumbai, and I realised that I wanted to make a feature film. I then started with the pre-production in 2022. We wrapped up the shooting on November 17 last year.
How did the approach to the film change as you started to shoot it?
Initially, the story involved only Prabha and Anu. Parvaty was just a minor character. As I researched more about the city, I felt Parvaty needed more space and focus in the film. She is a quintessential ‘Mumbai person’, and in the end, she’s the character that I loved the most. She’s really cool. I have tried to represent through Parvaty the story and history of people who came to Mumbai from Ratnagiri for work. I feel a part of Mumbai’s identity, be it the food or culture, comes from these people who migrated from Ratnagiri. During the 20th century, many people came from the Konkan region to work in the cotton mills. In the 1980s, the major cotton mills strike happened, and many of these men lost their jobs and homes, and the women had to become the breadwinners of the family. Women like them are very strong and they will find their way out. I really admire the power that they have.
As a writer and a filmmaker, did you need to change the script to make it more logistically viable?
There were more scenes in the film which I had to edit out, and then many were introduced because of the actors. When I was doing the workshops, their relationship was so good that I added more scenes. They were not there in the script but we just kept improvising them. Especially, when you have such amazing artistes who give you so much. Take for instance, the scene when Prabha cuts her finger, and Anu sucks on it; or the dancing scene in the village—both were impromptu. The three of them had such good chemistry, Anu and Parvaty had no scenes together, so we had to keep it.
What went into the casting? Were they your first preferences?
Honestly, I have always been interested in working with Kani because I have seen her work and she’s such a versatile actor. You would never see her doing the same thing. Even when she’s silent, it’s so powerful. Initially, I had thought to cast her as Anu, but years passed by, and both of us grew older (laughs). But then I thought of casting her as Prabha. I somehow had to work with her, I admire her a lot. And the funniest part is she’s absolutely not like Prabha, she’s more like Parvaty in real life. But she’s such a good actor, she can do anything.
I faced a difficult time casting for Anu. My heart was so set on the younger Kani. I visited a lot of colleges in Kerala to cast from amateur theatre groups. But nothing was clicking, and then somebody asked me to watch this movie Ariyippu by Mahesh Narayanan. But there, Divya was made to look much older, I was like how to cast her as Anu. And she came to meet me for the audition with bob-cut hair, and it was a fabulous audition.
And Chhaya Kadam was a known face. I first saw her in Nagraj Manjule’s directorial debut, Fandry. Chhaya was so good in that film. I saw her as a student and it got stuck in my head. I was apprehensive about approaching her, but to my surprise, she’s from Ratnagiri, and her father worked in the mills. She is well-acquainted with the situation, and after I reached out, she was like, “Arrey, I can do this.”
Have you ever thought of casting popular faces for your debut feature?
Honestly, I wanted to work with people who are willing to give me time. I have a long process of working... a lot of rehearsals, trials with scenes/situations that are not in the script, and other theatre exercises, and wanted to work with those who are open to those ideas. And these three actors were up for doing every bit for the film. The contribution of the actors can be very enriching for a director.
Mumbai is often tagged as ‘City of dreams’, but here you have put it as a ‘City of illusions’. Why is that?
I have a love-hate relationship with the city. It definitely gives a lot of opportunities, especially for women, and they feel safe, even late at night. There’s professionalism, you can go anonymously and eat kebabs with your boyfriend on Mohammed Ali Road, and nobody would notice you, but it’s also a very difficult city to live in. There’s a lot of struggle for everyday life. These nurses have to wake up early, travel, do their duties, travel back, make food, sleep, again wake up at 4 am, and do the same things all over again, just to make a livelihood. If anything happens in Mumbai, people will say the ‘Spirit of Mumbai’ will continue, but it’s because you don’t have a choice. You have to accept that or leave the city. I have a bit of a problem with the glorification of the city. You have to accept the situation as it is, and that is what I wanted to be a little critical about.