Q&A WITH PAYAL KAPADIA

Q. It’s really touching how you balance the hardships your main characters endure with the warm friendship the three women in the film share — as in their playful comments about men, who seem to haunt their lives. Was this dynamic tone present in the script from the start or something that came to life as you shot the film?

A. I like to have characters in my films who combine confidence and extreme under-confidence. That’s me as well and it leads to humor. Sadly, people who are a bit awkward can lead to a certain amount of humor in the way they talk or the way they respond to things. I am awkward and I love films that have this awkwardness. I want to do even more humor and style in my next film, so that tone was something I really wanted from the start. 

Also, I grew up in a family of four generations of women which were quite apart from each other, so I was always interested in generational friendship, misunderstanding, and acceptance. These are themes that I have been looking at for a long time. I was also thinking a lot about what a legitimate relationship in my country is. 

In the film, there’s this woman who is nearly 40 in a so-called relationship with a man who has disappeared. She really didn’t love him, but she’s holding on because that’s what is considered to be legitimate. On the other hand, there is this young girl enjoying life and falling in love with this boy — it’s the start of something new. There’s something truthful there, but it’s still considered illegitimate and not accepted by society. This gap made me feel sad because I’ve seen my friends and a lot of people I know suffer anxiety over whether they could be with someone or whether their parents would accept them as a big part of their lives. Men are constantly causing problems. 

Q. You’ve mentioned similarities between how New York and Mumbai are both cosmopolitan cities where people pursue ambitious work opportunities while also contending with extreme gentrification. What attracts you to these kinds of settings as a filmmaker?

A.  I am from Mumbai. It’s a city I have a confusing relationship with, because I never feel like I belong to the city since I didn’t grow up there despite my family being from there. I was out of the city a lot more, so I don’t have networks, friends, or childhood friends.

It’s like when you don’t see a person for a long time and then you see them after a few months. Their hair has grown and maybe they’ve lost some weight. You notice that more. But if you were seeing them every day, you’d be like, “I don’t see the change.” 

It’s the same for cities. When you leave them and then come back, you suddenly notice that your local bakery is now gone and turned into a shopping mall, that the street outside your house is now a highway or a bus station. The ocean, which is something that I used to go just to look at from time to time in the evenings, is no longer there because there is now a road where it used to be. There are buses where I would sit and watch the sea. The change shocks you more when you are not there all the time. Otherwise, it becomes a part of your daily life. It’s just something that’s going on, but when you go and come back, you’re like, “Oh, this is an odd jump cut.”

Mumbai is my city, but also entirely not — it’s one that I’m always familiar with anyhow. I was trying to understand a bit more about it and I began to see a lot of contradictions. I’m speaking about physical ones because gentrification in the past 20 years is really evident — the whole skyline of Mumbai has changed. Even the shape of Mumbai is changing as we speak because they are encroaching into the sea and making new land change the shape of the city. I understand that there is a need for more space, but who are the ones who are going to have access to this space? 

Q. There are two different temporalities in All We Imagine As Light — the scenes in Mumbai are hectic whereas those near the beach are more calm. What role does time play in your shooting process?

A. As filmmakers, we get to deal with time and we get to work with it in such a manipulative way, for want of a better word. I like the idea of the subjective feeling of time. There is the time of boredom and the time of busyness — both give a different feeling of time. It’s such a perceptive thing. As filmmakers, we have the opportunity to present a version of time to the audience. It excites me a lot, time is like having another tool in your toolbox. 

Q. What comes to mind first when you’re working on a project — stories, characters, sounds, or images?

A. For me, it’s a combination of things that I get drawn to. But mostly, it’s the characters — how I think of the characters as these objects floating in the sky and then, just wanting to find ways to make them connect. I start writing scenes that have nothing to do with the film just to see what it would be like if two characters that I wrote met and interacted.

I like to think about characters a lot. Then, the mise-en-scène is also important because I like to think of the space, city, or wherever the characters are situated. The space interacts with them as well. I like space and people. 

Q. Who is an underappreciated artist you admire and why? 

A. His work is quite well known in India, but I feel like it could definitely be more known around the world: the painter Bhupen Khakhar. He was one of the first openly queer artists in India and his work is amazing — it’s full of narrative, love stories, and dreams. I think he’s quite well known in the art world, but it would be nice for young people to discover him. He’s also a great writer. 

Q. What do you think would most surprise your childhood self about your life now?

A. When I was younger, I was not so interested in writing. It’s something that I’m obsessed with more and more — I rely on text. As a kid, I used to think of myself as more visual. But, as I’ve begun to explore cinema more, I’ve seen that the written word is something that gives me a lot of peace when I’m working. I’m very happy to have this love for writing.

Q. What is your favorite film soundtrack?

A. Fallen Angels, Wong Kar Wai.  

Q. What image would you like to end this interview with? 

A. Marc Chagall’s Quai de Bercy.