Payal Kapadia and the cast of her film, 'As We Imagine As Light', received an enthusiastic eight-minute ovation, among the longest of its edition, at its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival 2024, which is the first Indian movie in 30 years to qualify for the festival's competition section, leaving an impression on international critics and making a fashion splash.

The picture scripted history at the festival and puts Payal in the running for the coveted Palme d'Or. In addition to being the first Indian production in the competition in thirty years, Deadline claims that Payal is the first female Indian director to have a film screened in the Cannes competition.

Payal Kapadia Makes History at Cannes:

Payal feels honored that she has the opportunity to create history at the film festival and demonstrate to the world that Indian cinema is far more diverse than Bollywood. According to IndieWire, "European heavyweights such as Jacques Audiard and Yorgos Lanthimos, American auteurs David Cronenberg and Paul Schrader, and Asian visionary Jia Zhangke" are among Payal Kapadia's competitors.

“India is a country that makes a lot of good films. Not just Bollywood but every state has its industry and there are absolutely brilliant filmmakers. I hope that after this we won’t have to wait another 30 years,” Payal told Deadline, adding, “I’m excited and really we’re just happy that our film got selected. We didn’t expect it and it’s an honour because there are so many filmmakers in the section that I really admire.”

Regardless of the trophy, the film impressed international critics upon its premiere. Peter Bradshaw of 'The Guardian' praised it for its 'freshness and emotional clarity' and likened Satyajit Ray's 'fluent and absorbing' storytelling to that of Aranyer Din Ratri and Mahanagar director Aranyajit Ray.

The early reviews to pour in after the screening were glowing. In her review of the 'gorgeous and absorbing film', Sophie Monk-Kaufman of IndieWire wrote: This casual everyday vignette is brimming with a sensuality (the rain, the clothes, the food, the women) that people don't tend to notice when 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 fiction debut from a talented documentarian brings to mind the work of Lucrecia Martel or Alice Rohrwacher, yet there's a strong romantic streak that also calls to mind Wong Kar-wai's great love affair with the city of Hong Kong."

Jordan Mintzer of 'The Hollywood Reporter' could not resist comparing the languorous film with the cinema the world now expects from India. He commented: 'All We Imagine as Light' is about as far as you can get from the stylistics of Bollywood's masala musicals, even if there is one short and memorable impromptu dance scene toward the end. And yet its story of women looking for love and happiness in a calamitous world brings to mind those popular Mumbai-set movies, in which heroines suffer plenty of heartbreak before things eventually work out."

Payal Kapadia
Source: Open Magazine

The star cast of the internationally financed movie adorned the red carpet on the Palais du Festival steps before the screening. Kani Kusruti stood out with her watermelon clutch—the green and red accessory was designed like a cut section of the fruit!—Divya Prabha looked very different from her character in the movie in her elegant gown the color of copper, and Hridu Haroon made an appearance in a long, embellished kurta and veshti. But Kapadia and Ranabir Das, her co-producer and cinematographer, were content with formal blacks.

Kani Kusruti, Divya Prabha, Chhaya Kadam, and Hridhu Haroon are among the actors in the movie. The film, a rare French-Indo co-production, was made possible by the cooperation of Mumbai's Zico Maitra of Chalk & Cheese Films and Paris-based producers Hakim and Julien Graff of Petit Chaos. The Malayalam-Hindi language film, which was shot over 40 days in Mumbai and the wet western port town of Ratnagiri, tells the narrative of two young ladies named Prabha (Kani Kasruti) and Anu (Divya Prabha).

Kapadia gained international recognition with her documentary A Night of Knowing Nothing (2021), which screened in Director’s Fortnight at Cannes, where it won the Golden Eye for best documentary. In an interview, she highlighted the diverse and rich filmmaking talent across India. “India is a country that makes a lot of good films. Not just Bollywood but every state has its industry and there are absolutely brilliant filmmakers. I hope that after this we won’t have to wait another 30 years,” she said.

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