Of the various movies set in India that premiered at this yr’s Cannes Movie Competition, Payal Kapadia’s function debut is the one one to give attention to the nation and its character, which it does by specializing in its most populated metropolis, Mumbai. Like London, Paris and New York, Mumbai is a metropolis of contrasts, a melting pot of castes and races, however of its 12.5 million residents, over half are prone to reside in excessive poverty. All We Think about as Gentle tells the tales of the individuals on the breadline, those that are nearly getting by, making an attempt to carry onto their properties and their dignity as town’s rich elite purchase up and bulldoze their properties.
Kapadia’s documentary background is obvious from the outset, a sequence of monitoring photographs by way of a bustling metropolis market. All the employees are migrants, from villages far and vast, and whereas their weathered faces move by, we hear their (actual and clearly unscripted) ideas. “I didn’t notice a lot time had handed. Town takes time away from you,” says one. One other warns, “You need to get used to the impermanence.” Somewhat later, Mumbai will likely be declared “town of phantasm”, the place “you need to imagine the phantasm, otherwise you’ll go mad.”
This intriguing prelude offers method to a busy hospital, the place nurse Prabha (Kani Kusruti) works, alongside her flatmate Anu (Divya Prabha). The 2 ladies are each Hindi however very totally different; Anu bores simply, by no means pays her hire on time, and has a popularity for immodesty, having been noticed consorting with a wierd man who seems to be her boyfriend. Prabha, nevertheless, is the extra wise of the 2, which is why the hospital’s widowed cook dinner, Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam) goes to her for recommendation after the bailiffs come spherical, making an attempt to power her out of her house to make method for an costly new improvement.
The story, which provides solely the loosest of narratives, begins in earnest when Prabha receives a gift within the mail. It’s a high-tech rice cooker that seems to come back from Germany, the place her husband works and lives. There’s no notice, nothing, and that nothing is critical for Prabha who’s getting by in his absence and flustered by the eye she’s getting from a visiting physician.
Anu, in the meantime, lets all of it hang around; rebelling in opposition to her dad and mom, who bombard her with tacky photos of potential husbands from a Hindi relationship app, unaware that she is secretly relationship a Muslim (“How will you marry a stranger?” she wonders). When it turns into clear that Parvaty — who, like many within the metropolis, doesn’t have a single piece of proof that her house is hers — gained’t stand an opportunity in opposition to the lawyered-up landowners, Prabha and Anu assist her transfer again to her household’s distant village. Anu has organized to satisfy up along with her boyfriend for a clandestine hook-up, however the calmness of this ramshackle little seaside magnificence spot offers Prabha some area to consider the course her life is taking. Particularly when the physique of an unknown man washes up on the seaside.
This hallucinatory third act confirms Kapadia as a significant new expertise, and a worthy ambassador for India, which hasn’t had a movie in Competitors for 30 years. Although it appears to start as a sort of hybrid documentary, All We Think about as Gentle step by step transcends the boundaries of actuality to query the character of life itself. By taking Prabha and Anu out of Mumbai, even quickly, Kapadia takes away the overwhelming sensory assault of city life that stifles contemplation. (“Do you ever take into consideration the long run?” asks Prabha. “I really feel like the long run is right here and I’m not ready for it,” Anu replies.)
The indirect title, mysterious however in some way magical, captures what Kapadia is getting at with out being too on the nostril. And at a time when a lot consideration is being paid to the lives of the haves and the have-nots at a time of such monetary imbalance worldwide, it’s refreshing to see the highlight on strange ladies caught someplace within the center, dwelling simply sufficient for town.
