There’s not much in the world that is as inspiring and empowering as a lone woman. Sometimes thriving, mostly surviving, but always being who she is. And it is only women who can understand the value of this mixed bag. Even if the shadow of a man lingers somewhere in the background, a woman alone eventually realises the futility of gendered societal expectations and just does her own thing. No matter how difficult, no matter how unconventional, no matter how lonely. And that’s where friends come in to lighten the load of everyday life. When you watch films like All We Imagine as Light, you realise that the friendship between women who are navigating the world on their own is truly precious and irreplaceable.

The Grand Prix winner at the Cannes Film Festival 2024 feels like a comforting whisper in a crowd. That could be because the film is set in Mumbai and highlights the endless struggle of trying to build a life in the city. But what stuck with me long after the credits rolled were the individual stories of the female protagonists and how they still manage to find the time and will to be there for each other.

Prabha (Kani Kusruti) and Anu (Divya Prabha) work as nurses in the same hospital. Even though they live together, they are worlds apart in how they live their lives. For Prabha, life feels paused. She is married but hasn’t spoken to her husband in over a year. He sends her unsolicited gifts without warning but doesn’t answer her calls, forcing her to wait indefinitely.

Prabha is perhaps the most relatable character for married women in their 30s and 40s who are often grappling with loneliness in a crowd. Even though she knows her husband isn’t coming back, Prabha cannot move on, showing how tough it is for women to throw their conditioning to the wind and embrace life as men can in this part of the world.

Anu, on the other hand, is a rebel. She ignores her mother’s calls because she doesn’t want to hear another plea for marriage. She laughs at the matrimonial profiles her father sends her. And she’s in love with a Muslim boy. Unlike Prabha, Anu has not lost any hope in life and is yet to be disappointed by a man. She is so sure of herself and what she wants that nothing deters her from her goal. Which, for now, is to find a place to be alone with her boyfriend.

In the middle of Prabha and Anu’s story, we meet Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam), a cook at the hospital where they both work. At first, you feel sad for Parvaty. She is fighting a losing battle with a builder to hold on to the house she has lived in for 22 years. But without any papers to prove her residence, she knows she is as good as dead for the court.

Instead of crying about it, she throws a rock at the builder’s advertisement and moves out of the city, back to her village. Parvaty has the option of moving in with her son and his family but she doesn’t even consider it because “chik chik nahi chahiye”. With this one simple line, Parvaty emphasises how important it is for a woman to have her own space, regardless of the circumstances. The character of Parvaty has a few similarities to her Manju Maai in Laapata Ladies, but young women in this country need repetitions of this lesson till an independent woman doesn’t become the norm instead of the exception.

The women of Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine as Light are all of us at different stages in life. Anu’s problems may seem trivial to a woman like Prabha but they are major for Anu. And a woman as young as Anu may not understand why Prabha won’t forget about her husband but women of a similar age will know what’s holding Prabha back. Parvaty has lived through all of this and more and is now comfortable with who she is and what she wants. Whether that’s a peaceful life in the village away from her family or a drink and a dip in the sea in the middle of the day.

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