The biggest “hurrah” moment for India at the 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival was when Japanese master Hirokazu Kore-eda announced Payal Kapadia’s debut feature, All We Imagine As Light, as the winner of the Grand Prix. As a beaming Kapadia moved towards the stage to receive the award, she grabbed Divyaprabha’s hand and pulled the actor to walk with her, as the other two actors with prominent roles in the film — Kani Kusruti and Chhaya Kadam — followed them.
The writer-director received the award from producer-actor Viola Davis, while jury president Greta Gerwig looked on and applauded.
Moments like this are what cinematic dreams are made of. The presence of Davis, Gerwig and Kore-eda — who are known for their pioneering work and have established themselves as champions of cinema — as Kapadia accepted her award, underlines the importance of celebrating new cinematic voices with a resounding validation.
Let’s rewind to the moments before Kapadia’s big win was announced. When Davis came on the stage, her first sentence was, “Art doesn’t come from a safe place”. She praised the festival for being “daring” and encouraging “inventiveness”, apart from supporting “voices of change”. That’s the kind of support and space that celebrates a writer-director, who has been researching and revising her script for over seven years, as the newest Grand Prix winner. Visually rich and with a poetic style, Kapadia’s films are a showcase for her inventive storytelling.
The chorus that Kapadia has created “history” started nearly a month and a half ago when the festival announced the selection of All We Imagine as Light for its “competition section”. For 30 years before that, it had passed over Indian filmmakers. Prior to the announcement, few would have fancied the chances of All We Imagine As Light, which is being described as a “gentle, meditative” movie about female friendship. The award proves the ability of Kapadia, a Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) alumna, to create a moving narrative without banking on star power or calculating commercial gains. Even as she draws from personal experiences, what comes across in the film is Kapadia’s penchant for simple yet profound themes.
As we celebrate Kapadia’s cinematic excellence, this is also a moment to reflect on India’s cinema-making culture and the ethos that drives it. Kapadia was one of the students who paid a price for protesting against the appointment of Gajendra Chauhan as FTII’s chairperson when her scholarship grant was cut. True to Davis’s words about the “creation of art”, Kapadia’s 2021 documentary A Night of Knowing Nothing came out of the “chaos” that prevailed on Indian campuses as students resorted to protests.
Typically, in India, it would be considered risky to have non-stars, especially women — even when they are all fabulous actors — to drive a feature narrative. But known for her craft, Kapadia meticulously, with a long-drawn preparation process, let her actors hone their scenes and skills before facing the camera.
When one sees a victorious woman director sharing the stage with Davis, one of contemporary cinema’s powerful figures, and her three actors-cum-collaborators, it holds out the hope that it is possible for Indian cinema to think beyond masculinity and violence as safe bets to grab audience attention in the post-pandemic scenario.
Although the Oscar for Original Song won by RRR’s ‘Naatu Naatu’ in 2023 was another major cinematic moment that Indians celebrated, the fact remains that S S Rajamouli’s film was powered by popular stars, and a massive scale and budget. All We Imagine As Light, instead, goes for an idea that Kapadia described as “weird” during the Cannes closing ceremony, before expressing her gratitude to the producers who stood by her vision.
Cutting the clutter of glamourous and promotional red-carpet appearances, this Mumbai-based filmmaker has shown us how to go for the thing that really matters. Unlike in 2017, when her short film Afternoon Clouds was the lone Indian representative at Cannes, Kapadia was not alone this time. There were seven other films which were either made by Indians or have a strong India connection. Adding to the “big India moment” at Cannes this year, art director-turned-actor Anasuya Sengupta created history by becoming the first Indian to win Best Actress at Cannes (Un Certain Regard) for her role in the Bulgarian director Konstantin Bojanov’s The Shameless. Also, bringing home the first and third prizes in the La Cinef category are Chidananda S Naik’s Sunflowers Were the First Ones to Know and Mansi Maheshwari’s animated movie Bunnyhood. Both British-Indian filmmaker Sandhya Suri’s Santosh, featuring Shahana Goswami, and Karan Kandhari-directed Sister Midnight, featuring Radhika Apte, have drawn rave reviews. There was In Retreat, directed by FTII alumnus Syed Maisam Ali Shah, in ACID, Cannes’ sidebar. Not to forget Santosh Sivan, who received the prestigious Pierre Angénieux Tribute award and Manthan, which was screened in a packed auditorium under Cannes Classics section.
It is not a coincidence that India’s representation at Cannes this year captured the strong art-house cinema of India — past and present — as well as the creative spirit of indie filmmaking. Instead of obsessing over weekend box office figures, let this magnificent Indian run at Cannes nudge filmmakers to be more “inventive” and follow their own “weird” ideas.
alaka.sahani@expressindia.com
