by Lisa Nystrom
Worth: $18.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Chhaya Kadam, Divya Prabha, Hridhu Haroon, Kani Kusruti, Azees Nedumangad
Intro:
There’s a quiet boldness to Kapadia’s approach, exploring intimacy, personal freedom, and the concept of chosen families all with an almost poetic meditation.
The first Indian film to compete for the Palme d’Or at Cannes in nearly 30 years, writer/director Payal Kapadia’s feature debut tells the story of Anu (Divya Prabha), Prabha (Kani Kusruti), and Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam), three women in search of different types of freedom.
While Prabha receives an unexpected gift from her estranged husband and is forced to confront the reality of her life without him, Anu faces her own difficulties trying to find the time and space to be romantic with her boyfriend. Meanwhile, Parvaty’s husband has passed away, but her life is still influenced by him. Thanks to his choice not to include her name on any of their legal documents, she has no proof that their house belongs to her and is being forced out by contractors looking to renovate.
Each of our three protagonists are outsiders, not native to the city that they work in or call home. It’s a Mumbai we so rarely get to see, instead of dazzling us with colour and sound, Kapadia gives us a city alive with people moving from place to place but always with a measure of cool indifference; distant, repressed, and so rarely connecting with one another.
By the second half of the film, the cold blue of the city’s fluorescent lights and storm-drenched pavement makes way for the blue of the ocean and cloudless sky as the women journey together to Parvaty’s coastal home, eventually opening up to one another and sharing secrets from their past and dreams of the future that they long for.
There’s a quiet boldness to Kapadia’s approach, exploring intimacy, personal freedom, and the concept of chosen families all with an almost poetic meditation. The camerawork and use of lighting are striking, creating movement and life where the plot stays measured. The film’s pacing is deliberate in its syrupy slowness. Almost dreamlike, it leaves room for contemplation. Nothing happens in a hurry, rather, Kapadia invites audiences to sit and simply exist alongside these women in each passing moment. For a film highlighting the lack of connection in modern society, it succeeds in creating a bond between the audience and its three main characters.
