23/21
In Mumbai, nurse Prabha is distraught when she receives an unexpected gift from her estranged husband
Her younger roommate Anu struggles in vain to find a place in the city to meet her boyfriend. The first Indian film to win the prestigious Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival in 2024. All We Imagine how light plays a role and the main foundation for a multi-award winning and conceptually refreshing work.
You might ask me why?
Its overall win at Cannes is a triumph for Indian cinema, and its ambition and achievement cannot be ignored. Yet the overall review is low? Despite the fantastic sound design and some compositional beauty in the shots.
The pace of the story and the overall purpose were its most critical downfalls
I was stuck with a film that couldn’t decide whether it was a documentary, a feature film or a story-driven work. Overall the actual story was 1/4 of the film, I was bored and had a hard time getting involved to sift through the minutes and hours of footage being created and I struggled to really connect with the 2 characters we were shown with all the noise and bravado. I will say that the "ego" director tries to tell me several things but ultimately doesn’t decide what is important in it all.
were not ignored)
That being said there was a message and when you peel back the layers you can see it, however I believe the editing needed some serious work and tougher decisions to focus on what was important and what makes this film successful. In conclusion I believe that despite this this director has an exciting job ahead of him and this film proves the compelling fact that Indian cinema can cater to western audiences (older western aspect ratios etc. With the help of a French producer and a French production company behind the piece, it’s great to see the desire to explore other cultures and stories around the world being brought and celebrated at Cannes as a Grand Prix.