Easily the best part of going to film festivals is seeing a major new talent breakthrough. That’s exactly what happened at the Cannes Film Festival this year when All We Imagine as Light became the first Indian film to win a major award (the Grand Prix) at the festival in decades, and it was for director Payal Kapadia’s feature debut. It’s a quietly beautiful film about two women in Mumbai yearning for something more. That may not sound like a recipe for one of the best sex scenes of the year, but All We Imagine as Light is full of surprises.
All We Imagine As Light is so gentle and dreamlike that you’d hardly expect such a passionate display of love and sex to happen within it. But that’s exactly what happens. And it’s staggeringly sensual.
Two nurses, Prabha (Kani Kusruti) and Anu (Divya Prabha), work together and share a small Mumbai apartment, but the two have very different approaches to life. Prabha is dedicated to her work, but also to routine and the familiar, dedicating time to cooking and keeping her home in order. She’s married but her relationship with her husband is non-existent— Prabha hasn’t seen him since he moved away to Germany after they wed, and hasn’t heard from him in who knows how long. Despite this, Prabha is entrenched in tradition and devotion, even brushing away the affection of a doctor at the hospital who deeply cares for her, in order to stay faithful to a man who’s hardly hers.
While Prabha is overwhelmed by loneliness, her younger roommate is driven by desire. She’s stoked up controversy at their workplace with rumors that she may be dating a Muslim man. Prabha too, is deeply judgemental of Anu. Not only is Anu dating Shiaz (Hridhu Haroon), they’re getting serious. However, it’s proving incredibly difficult for the two of them to take their relationship further. Despite Mumbai being an enormous city (with a population of approximately 21 million people), it seems all but impossible to find a place for Anu and Shiaz to do what they want the most—have sex. They came tantalizingly close when Shiaz’s parents went away—Anu even purchased a burqa so she could get to him covertly—but the parents’ surprise return stopped them from bringing their desires to fruition.
Yet all hope is not lost: When Prabha’s friend and former co-worker Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam) asks Prabha to accompany her to her old village in Ratnagiri, it gives Anu the perfect opportunity to make her sexual getaway happen. She tags along under the pretense of helping Parvaty move and unpack, but she plans for Shiaz to come in secret so the two may finally make love.
Before the pair have their long-awaited sexual encounter, they meet in a secluded cave. They discover cave drawings on the walls. Pausing at a drawing of a woman, Anu says “It’s like she’s been here forever, as if she’s waiting for something to happen.” As Kapadia cuts to an extreme close-up of Anu’s longing eyes as she stares at Shiaz, the result is arresting, and like the drawing, Anu feels like she’s been waiting for forever to have sex with Shiaz.
And finally, they both get what they long for. In a forest, Shiraz and Anu bring each other to the ground and undress. Kapadia’s camera feels tender and invigorating, and not exploitative. Her close-ups are striking compositions of unrestricted desire. Flesh entangled, eyes alight, bodies caressing in the glowing Indian sun—all accompanied by hearty, intense breathing. It’s sexy and freeing, and it’s also visually dazzling, bringing the viewer straight into the throes of their passion.
Sex scenes in cinema often push the envelope, and are increasingly titillating and erotic, showing as much as they can. While that’s a perfectly effective way to explore sex on screen, there’s something to be said about the very different, yet arguably even more effective route All We Imagine As Light takes.
Kapadia’s approach to sex is tactile, honing in on the details of a long-awaited desire. The focus on hands gripping tightly on each other’s bodies speaks so much to how deeply Anu and Shiaz desire one another—they love one another so intensely that they can’t bear to let go of each other.
The closeups of eyes, ablaze with desire and the thrill of their new discoveries stir deeper in the heart than a succession of loud grunts and intense thrusts. While many films explore sex, All We Imagine As Light is deeply invested in exploring what it means to truly make love.
