Cinema can sometimes be closer to poetry than prose, says filmmaker Payal Kapadia whose much acclaimed “All We Imagine As Light” is an ode to women, their inner world and the bustling city of Mumbai that becomes home.
And to convey it all through the story of two Malayali nurses, Kapadia uses literature and sound for the many lyrical notes of the film, which became the first Indian film to win the Grand Prix award at the Cannes Film Festival this May.
“I like literature a lot so I keep thinking about making the dialogues a little more literary. I believe cinema can sometimes be closer to poetry than prose. The story is there no doubt but can we have fun with that in the telling? That’s what I enjoy the most,” Kapadia told PTI in an interview.
The poetically titled “All We Imagine As Light”, which is ready for its theatrical run on November 22, features dialogues that often seem like short verses.
“I am a huge romantic so I cannot run away from love stories and the exploration of romance. I think going forward I would like to do that,” she said.
Kapadia’s short film “Afternoon Clouds” and documentary feature “A Night of Knowing Nothing” also carry elements of romance and poetry.
In “All We Imagine…”, she said she has used sound to explore the lives of her two primary characters — Prabha (Kani Kusruti) and Anu (Divya Prabha), roommates and colleagues in Mumbai. The silence of their lives unfolds against the cacophony of Mumbai’s noise-scape.
Prabha’s life is thrown in disarray when she receives a rice cooker from her estranged husband. Anu is struggling to find a private spot in the bustling city to be with her boyfriend. Prabha’s best friend Parvati (Chhaya Kadam), a widow, is being forced out of her home by property developers.
Kapadia, 38, said it is easy to depict what’s on a character’s mind by simply writing “she thought” in a book but that is much more challenging in cinema.
“There are many paths to it. Filmmakers have done it through light, image and all sorts of things but the way I like to do it is through sound. The experience of sound is very sensitive because we hear sound according to our mood. When we are in our own thoughts, we don’t even hear what’s happening outside. When you are in love, you hear music in your mind.
“There were these ideas and Indian movies have been using this method for years. All these things that I learned or was excited about, I created the inner world by playing with sound subjectively,” she added.
Kapadia completed her schooling from a boarding school in Andhra Pradesh
and then studied at St Xavier’s College and Sophia College in Mumbai, before applying for a film direction course at Pune’s Film and Television Institute of India (FTII).
Movies, both parallel as well as mainstream, were a big part of her growing up years. She was also exposed to regional cinema in her school, she said, recalling the “openness” of her movie watching experience.
FTII, Kapadia said, gave her a chance to do “a lot of experimentation” without baggage. In between college and FTII, she briefly thought of doing something else.
“I am quite privileged because my mother (Nalini Malani) is an artist and she has achieved a lot in her field as a woman artist. So it was like, I have to do something artistic.
“If I had opted to become a doctor, maybe my family would have found it difficult to understand. So, to rebel, I thought, ‘No, I will do business’ and I studied economics but then I realised that this is what I wanted to do. I then applied at FTII and chose this route.”
“All We Imagine…” was surrounded by a lot of positive buzz and great reviews. Most of what went down at Cannes is a haze for Kapadia, who remembers working for months in the studio only to briefly step into the limelight.
“I am one of those students who will take an extra paper one minute before the exam ends. I finished the film on Friday and on Monday, I had to go to Cannes with it. The film was like ‘garam, garam bhajiya’.
“For three months, I was in my pyjamas, going to the studio and, suddenly cut to, you have to wear nice clothes and look good. I was like, ‘What!’ So everything was quite a blur but the good thing was that I had the artists and the crew so I felt like maybe I will swim through (the red carpet)” she recalled.
In previous interviews, Kapadia has spoken about how Mumbai was a big part of the story she wanted to tell. The opening montage of the film is composed of those living on its margins — migrants, porters and daily wagers — narrating their experiences of the city.
Kapadia said she has always wrestled with these questions which is why they have found their way into the movie.
“Unfortunately, our society and the world is designed in a cruel way where it is the common person that suffers the most when changes happen in a city. Public spaces are taken away, their housing is taken away and then it becomes expensive to live in.
“These questions about Mumbai really bother me and I watch the city change. The people who have built this city don’t have a chance anymore or access to the same spaces that they built. Everybody should be asking these questions,” she added.
There were moments of self-doubt but now that “All We Imagine…” is ready to release in theatres, Kapadia said she is looking forward to the public feedback.
“For any filmmaker, it is a dream and it is my first film to release theatrically,” she said.
Has the process of letting go begun for her?
“Yes, it has. The life of a film is different at different stages and so is your relationship with it. When you are writing, it is a different relationship.
“When you have actors, it completely changes because they contribute so much with their feelings and body language. When it is in public and the way they react to it, it is a different feeling. That’s the good thing about being a filmmaker, you are never bored,” she added.
“All We Imagine…” is being distributed in India by Rana Daggubati’s Spirit Media. (PTI)
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