All We Imagine as Light & The Gently Surreal Cinema of Payal Kapadia #138

Hello, Hello, Hello!

 

In this very special, if slightly delayed episode, Dhruv & Amartya are joined by returning guest Cris (now "not the token queer representation for QID"), reincarnated host-cum-guest Aryan (from America), and first-time-but-hopefully-recurring-guest Prakhar Patidar, to talk about the film every Indie Awards Circuit talk show and Indian cinephile is currently talking about -- Payal Kapadia's "All We Imagine as Light."

Because everyone already seems to have written all sorts of essays and reviews on AWIAL (some of them are linked below!), we decided to expand the discussion beyond that. The first hour (of this 110 min podcast) is dedicated to exploring Payal Kapadia’s early short film work, her, at times, overpowering indebtedness to certain filmic styles (namely, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, who is mentioned at least 20 times in this discussion), and how her first feature film, “A Night of Knowing Nothing” (2021), breaks away from that.

The second hour involves a full, spoiler-filled discussion of AWIAL – the things we liked about it, the things we didn’t, and the things we hope to like more about it on a rewatch.

Listen to the full episode to hear us also -- dismiss the all-male Indian Jury who dismissed AWIAL as India’s Oscar Entry for its lack of “Indianness” and debate what “Indianness” really is!

TIMECODES

Episode Intro (& Cheap Laughs) - [00:00 – 07:35]

Introduction to Payal Kapadia - [07:35 – 11:33]

Kapadia’s Short Films & Going Beyond Inspiration - [11:33 – 26:57]

Debating the “Indianness” of Kapadia’s Cinema - [26:57 – 43:10]

“A Night of Knowing Nothing” (2021) - [43:10 – 01:01:58]

“All We Imagine as Light” (2024) - [01:01:58 – 01:44:13]

Episode Outro (& Cheap Laughs) - [01:44:13 – 01:50:32]

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REVIEWS/BIOGRAPHIES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

 

1. “Payal Kapadia: The Chronicler of Dreams” (Suhani Singh) - https://www.indiatoday.in/india-today-insight/story/payal-kapadia-the-chronicler-of-dreams-2641073-2024-11-27

 

2. “‘All We Imagine as Light’ is a Rare Cinematic Peek into the world that women live in” (Prakhar Patidar) - https://poemsindia.substack.com/p/all-we-imagine-as-light-is-a-rare

 

3. “‘All We Imagine as Light’ review: The Search for intimacy amidst a sea of turbulence” (Aryan Vyas) - https://www.socialketchup.in/review/all-we-imagine-as-light-review-7342862

 

4. “All We Imagine as Light Review” (Dhruv Goyal) - https://inreviewonline.com/2024/11/11/all-we-imagine-as-light/

You can (and should!) follow Prakhar at - https://www.instagram.com/she_isatthemovies.

You can (and should, even though the site is a hellhole) follow Cris on his Twitter account - https://x.com/limjaeseven

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Cris: https://www.instagram.com/prdscris/

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Cris: https://letterboxd.com/crislim/

 

Audio Excerpts are taken from the promotional material for Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Memoria, Payal Kapadia’s A Night of Knowing Nothing, and All We Imagine as Light  -- all of which are discussed and referenced in this episode.

The outro music clip is from Emahoy Tsege Mariam’s “The Homeless Wanderer” – mentioned, described, and discussed as an integral part of All We Imagine as Light’s soundtrack.