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EXCLUSIVE | ‘Presence’ stars Callina Liang, West Mulholland, and Eddy Maday on How Steven Soderbergh Merges Supernatural Horror with Psychological Realism

EXCLUSIVE | ‘Presence’ stars Callina Liang, West Mulholland, and Eddy Maday on How Steven Soderbergh Merges Supernatural Horror with Psychological Realism


There are solely a handful of Indian movies that defy the traditional description and invite the audiences right into a world that may solely be understood by expertise relatively than rationalization. One such movie is Payal Kapadia’s ‘ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT’. Set in opposition to the bustling but remoted backdrop of Mumbai, this cinematic triumph transcends narrative boundaries to create one thing profound and deeply private. Through a surprising mixture of magical realism and grounded storytelling, it delves into themes of affection, loss, identification, and self-discovery. Apart from the storytelling, the cinematography by Ranabir Das, elevates the movie to an ethereal realm, capturing the stark contrasts of Mumbai’s city panorama with poetic finesse. The digicam lingers on town’s chaos and quiet, utilizing gentle and shadow to reflect the interior worlds of its characters.

The inventive brilliance has not gone unnoticed, as ‘ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT‘ has garnered widespread acclaim and a plethora of prestigious accolades on the worldwide competition circuit. For Payal and Ranabir, this roaring success is one thing that they by no means imagined, as their focus was solely on telling an genuine and deeply private story. After successful the Grand Prix accolade at this 12 months’s Cannes, the movie has solidified its place as a landmark in up to date Indian cinema. It’s so sensible to see an Indian filmmaker garnering a lot success on the world stage, and changing into the first-ever feminine filmmaker from India to obtain a Best Director nod on the Golden Globes. Recently, I had the fortune of speaking to Payal Kapadia, and DOP Ranabir Das, about their movie and the way they created such a powerful world the place moments of magical realism are delivered to life by surreal imagery.

Payal Kapadia on the Cannes Film Festival (Image Credit: Getty Images)

Here’s the FULL INTERVIEW:

Aayush Sharma: Congratulations on the unimaginable win for ‘All We Imagine As Light’. The previous few days will need to have been a whirlwind of feelings, from press engagements to screenings, culminating on this well-deserved triumph. How does it really feel to see all of the onerous work and keenness behind this movie being celebrated on such a grand stage? Has the magnitude of this achievement actually sunk in but?

Payal Kapadia: It’s been actually greater than we ever imagined for the movie. When we had been in Cannes, it already felt so large. Every time one thing else occurs, we really feel like we wish to pinch ourselves. We labored on the movie for a very long time—particularly the 2 of us (Payal and Ranabir Das), since we write collectively as nicely. It’s been a mission we’ve labored on, on and off, for nearly six or seven years, and intensely over the previous 4 years. Sometimes, you’re feeling prefer it’s over, and that itself feels so bizarre.

Aayush Sharma: The metropolis of Mumbai performs such a central position in your movie. How did you method portraying Mumbai not simply as a setting however as a personality in itself, with its heartbeat and tales?

Payal Kapadia: I feel it’s as a result of, if you make a movie—or at the very least after I make a movie—it’s sort of like a response to your environment. What forces itself into the movie is one thing that issues you or one thing you see on a regular basis, and also you get bothered by it. The contradictions of Mumbai, I feel, are very a lot a part of our day by day life. For the previous 5 years, we’ve been dwelling right here collectively. On one facet, you see everyone shifting right here—particularly within the movie business—as a result of all our buddies from FTII additionally moved to Mumbai. In some senses, it’s sort of liberating as a result of you could have your personal sort of freedom right here to do issues. But it’s additionally a metropolis that may be very merciless. It’s a really costly metropolis, not very snug to navigate or journey in on daily basis, contemplating the period of time it takes. There can also be fixed gentrification happening. It’s a metropolis that’s at all times in a state of change as a result of the individuals who include numerous problem will also be very simply made to depart. We particularly noticed that throughout the COVID time. It’s additionally a metropolis that’s geographically altering as a result of it’s like an island metropolis that turned connected to the peninsula. And now, land reclamation can also be happening. So even bodily, town is like an amoeba. I used to be very thinking about all this stuff concerning the metropolis, and a few of it makes us very indignant additionally.

Ranabir Das: In basic, Mumbai is a metropolis the place so many movies are shot. But in only a few movies will we really see town. We simply needed to doc some senses of now—a time now—that can stay someplace.

Payal Kapadia: Because I feel that Mohammad Ali Road, that space, may also someday get gentrified and be shot. And I really feel like we needed to additionally keep in mind completely different, completely different locations.

Aayush Sharma: The shift from the bustling city panorama of Mumbai to the serene coastal village marks a big tonal change. How did you conceptualize this transition, and what does it signify within the bigger context of the story?

Ranabir Das: Well, on some ranges, it’s very fundamental. Like, we simply needed a shift, a change in season. Yeah. Just a little little bit of time has passed by between the earlier occasions and what’s to observe. In that sense, the most important shift, I feel, is that the primary half could be very cloudy, and the second half could be very vibrant solar. The shade palette additionally shifts within the course of. But we needed the second half to have a barely completely different feeling of time as nicely. We needed it to be only one lengthy day, this complete second half. So we needed to really feel the time a little bit bit extra. We needed to be a little bit nearer to the characters. In town, we at all times included town a little bit bit within the background or in some aircraft. There’s at all times some presence of town creeping in. But over right here, we needed to be bodily nearer to the characters and be with them extra.

Payal Kapadia: The kind of this village, however our intention at the very least was to someplace keep away from taking a look at that an excessive amount of, okay, and being with the character. Yeah, like that’s why most—at the very least what we tried, I don’t understand how a lot of it got here by—however numerous time, Riku would bleach out a number of the background when it was a really large shot, for instance, as a result of the daylight wouldn’t sort of, , simply follow that cliche of a fairly place. Something that, , that warmth—I don’t know in case you are from Delhi, however I assume in Delhi additionally, in the summertime, that very high solar is like, it’s not very nice. So that feeling, we needed to sort of get. I feel, yeah, as a result of Mumbai seems to be so completely different, I feel that distinction has been a lot.

Kani Kusruti and Divya Prabha

Kani Kusruti as Prabha and Divya Prabha as Any in ‘All We Imagine As Light’ (Image Credit: Spirit Media)

Aayush Sharma: The movie opens with a documentary-style montage of road scenes and migrant voices. How did your background in documentary filmmaking form this method, and what was your intent behind mixing this fashion with fiction?

Payal Kapadia: You know, like, I feel each of us are very process-driven filmmakers. So numerous time, we find yourself doing numerous analysis and, , not even simply analysis—once we go for location scouting, you sit, you chat with individuals, you could have chai, you eat, or we simply meet individuals for the sake of, , understanding issues higher. While doing that, we had been getting numerous completely different tales from individuals—individuals had been telling us, and our buddies had been additionally telling us. So we needed to maintain the essence of these conversations someway within the movie, although we didn’t understand how. I feel it was the identical with our earlier movie too—like, numerous the stuff that’s there comes out later due to interactions with actuality. You can think about some issues, you write sure issues, you could have a script, and all the pieces, after which actuality comes and says, ‘Hello,’ which is sweet. I actually get pleasure from that, and I feel we actually get pleasure from that. So we needed to maintain a sense of these conversations and random interactions. We additionally felt like someway it gave a sort of symphony of town, with all of the individuals right here. It’s a metropolis made up of individuals from completely different elements of the state, and completely different elements of the nation, and also you hear so many languages in Mumbai. It’s a really numerous house. So we needed to have a jhalak of that within the movie.

Ranabir Das: Also, we felt that it was one thing that was treating it like there are such a lot of tales floating round, and we’re getting into one among them. Just one factor we’re delving into deeper, after which that fiction additionally turns into a little bit bit extra actual after that.

Aayush Sharma: The movie is devoted to your grandmother and your buddy who’s a nurse. How did their lives and experiences encourage the story of All We Imagine as Light, and what private connections formed your method to telling this story?

Payal Kapadia: For me, my grandmother’s story has been a nagging string for all my movies to this point. Every movie has this copy in it. All my brief movies have it. Basically, when she was in her 90s, she began dropping her reminiscence. So, I instructed her, simply to sort of hold the thoughts shifting, ‘Why don’t you write a diary?’ So, she began writing the diary. And someway, within the diary, this husband of hers used to maintain showing. Now, she was 97 or 96 or one thing like this. Her husband died when she was 50. So, all these years, she was single. But right now, it was he who was popping out, coming in her desires and coming virtually like an individual, like a ghost, and was annoying her. So, she was very irritated. I feel she didn’t get together with him very a lot. So, I used to be pondering rather a lot about that, like this type of factor that numerous girls round me—like they’re impartial, they’re dwelling alone, working jobs, financially impartial—however these males don’t appear to go. So, I used to be pondering rather a lot about that, and like, sort of, , that our concepts in India, we’ve to have a look at our feminism in a manner, preserving these sorts of issues in thoughts. At least for me, that is my perspective. Everybody has their very own. So, like, it’s these lingering males who we don’t need them to outline us, however they’re there. Now, what to do? So, that’s sort of what this movie is about. Like, this Prabha additionally, , sort of attempting to depart this chap who simply popped up out of nowhere. So, yeah, that’s it.

For the nurse, she was very open to telling me all concerning the early…like, all these things about studying concerning the placenta, how their coaching was once. So, that’s what obtained me into the nursing occupation—it’s due to all this. She used to inform me about the way it was for them after they had been college students and, , the sort of issues on a day-to-day foundation, the way it was. So, I obtained very…like, she was very open to maintain telling me. I’d WhatsApp her saying, ‘Is this clinically right?’ and all that. Very beneficiant with that—consulting all the knowledge and the nursing tales. Many nurses have helped on this, and we did so many interviews, however she was one of many first individuals I spoke to.

Aayush Sharma: Riku, I wanted to know, and clarify to me like I’m a 10-year-old. For you, attending to know concerning the characters, struggles, and all the pieces else, play a big position in utilizing sure visible strategies, like lighting and all. 

Ranabir Das: Yes, completely. It’s not solely about what a personality is feeling or going by these days but in addition concerning the bigger imaginative and prescient of how a director desires the story to be instructed. So, with every mission I undertake, I make a acutely aware effort to be as true and sincere to the essence of that mission as attainable. It’s about making certain that the character’s journey, feelings, and experiences resonate with the general narrative and the director’s inventive imaginative and prescient.

Aayush Sharma: The majority of the movie is in Malayalam, reflecting the fact that many nurses in Mumbai come from Kerala. As somebody who didn’t develop up talking the language, how did you navigate the problem of authentically portraying this linguistic and cultural context? What steps did you are taking to make sure that the nuances of Malayalam-speaking characters had been captured with depth and accuracy?

Payal Kapadia: I’ve to say, it was powerful, and took additional time to get this proper. But I had Robin Joy and Naseem, my dialogue writers, who’re each from Kerala and likewise filmmakers. I really met Robin at FTII, and I’ve at all times appreciated his writing and brief movies. I needed to work with him as a result of I felt we linked nicely emotionally, politically, and when it comes to our social contexts. So, I introduced him on board virtually two years in the past, in 2022. He then started rewriting the dialogues primarily based on how we had mentioned the characters. For instance, we determined that Anu could be from Palakkad, so we adjusted her accent and even integrated her particular slang. We additionally labored on how the characters would talk on WhatsApp, utilizing that Gen Z fashion of texting. Robin and Naseem actually devoted a complete 12 months to rewriting and refining the dialogues.

When we labored with the actors, we’d re-examine the dialogues collectively. The actors would ship their strains, and we’d hearken to the recordings to listen to how they sounded. This course of was important as a result of, in any other case, how would I direct in a language I don’t totally perceive, proper? We did numerous rehearsals to assist me get a way of what they had been saying and the way it felt. With Robin’s experience, he’d level out if one thing didn’t sound fairly proper, which was extremely useful. Having somebody like him by my facet made the entire course of smoother and extra genuine.

Aayush Sharma: All We Imagine as Light is a deeply political movie, but a lot of the dialogue round it focuses on its aesthetics or limits its politics to an Indian context, overlooking its common relevance. Have you observed this, and the way do you’re feeling about such interpretations?

Ranabir Das: We’ve tried in our personal manner, although I’m unsure how efficiently it comes by or to what extent we’ve been proper or not. But we’ve tried to incorporate some components. I feel that, generally, any movie you watch is political, whether or not the filmmakers meant it to be or not. You can learn into it, and also you’ll discover issues which might be, in some methods, political. In that sense, there are undoubtedly facets of this movie which might be extra instantly political, however all the pieces else additionally turns into one thing to interpret and perceive. Ultimately, everybody could have their very own interpretation.

Payal Kapadia: Yeah, true. But I feel some issues are so deeply rooted for us, just like the context of the papers and the connection, or a number of the little issues we’ve saved within the movie that we haven’t even subtitled. I really feel like there’s at all times this steadiness between explaining issues and permitting individuals to really feel them. And we’re at all times fighting this steadiness—how a lot to elucidate or for which viewers. So, on the finish of the day, that is the steadiness we’ve discovered for this movie. We’ll see the way it goes with the following one. But yeah, many individuals don’t totally perceive our nation. There are so many issues right here, so many contexts, so many layers. Some individuals even ask me if we converse “Indian,” and I’m like, no! So, what can we do? Even throughout the nation, the humanities usually characterize only one voice and one opinion. Interpretation will at all times be completely different. I feel even inside our nation, a movie about Delhi will likely be seen otherwise by somebody who’s by no means been there or lived there. All of this stuff are true, and one among my targets was to keep away from falling into clichés about nursing, the characters, or the rest. They are simply individuals. There’s nothing you possibly can label as clichéd about their identification. That was one thing I believed rather a lot about, however once more, that’s the fantastic thing about cinema. You create one thing, then you definately see how individuals react and be taught from it, understanding what you probably did and at all times striving to do higher, I assume.

All We Imagined As Light

Divya Prabha and Hridhu Haroon in a nonetheless from ‘All We Imagined As Light’ (Photo Credit: Spirit Media)

Aayush Sharma: You are fairly lively on social media, particularly on Twitter. Recently, you talked concerning the unsuitable side ratio in theatres. What occurred there?

Payal Kapadia: Don’t make me cry. please. (laughs) But since I posted it on Twitter, at the very least persons are speaking about it. I’ve observed that persons are going, and the courageous ones are stopping the projection. I don’t perceive that—so many movies should be shot in 1.85:1 at the very least.

Aayush Sharma: Mr. Hansal Mehta, the director, stated on social media {that a} film like ‘All We Imagine As Light’ is failing to get assist from streaming platforms. Was that true? and what did you be taught from that course of?

Ranabir Das: In our case, there may be some curiosity from streaming platforms that producers are taking a look at.

Payal Kapadia: But the issue is that in our case, since we’re releasing in so many nations, we will’t do a world sale. This makes streaming platforms a bit hesitant, I assume—it’s a problem for them as all of them need worldwide attain. And we actually needed a launch time. We needed the movie to be in cinemas for an extended length, in order that was one of many factors I put forth—what I might say on this matter. But the opposite factor you’re stating, distribution is an actual downside. This 12 months, there have been so many movies from India at Cannes. Directors of Indian origin, my batchmate Maisa Malli’s movie was there in ACID. It’s a very nice movie, and I feel it was at MAMI as nicely. We’re getting consideration within the information and all the pieces, however there have been so many movies there. There was Sister of Midnight, there was Santosh, and Girls Will Be Girls, which I feel has carried out fairly nicely however didn’t get a cinema launch. So I feel we must always discover a strategy to watch our personal nation’s movies within the cinema, even when they’re small. Why can’t we get one slot a day for these movies? Why aren’t exhibitors keen to take that problem? Anyway, they’ve multiplexes, to allow them to present the massive motion pictures, and in the event that they present one smaller movie as soon as a month, it may very well be superb. The manner she makes movies is unimaginable, so on her personal, and the movies are improbable. I feel so many individuals would get pleasure from watching them, like schoolchildren. They might do outings and take all the children from some faculties to the cinema. The cinemas might provide discounted costs too.

Ranabir: I really feel that these sorts of interactive issues may very well be a strategy to hold individuals engaged from a younger age and encourage vital pondering. Cinema can do this as nicely. And relating to your preliminary query about OTT, it’s changing into an more and more tough market generally. When it first got here in, it appeared like there was scope for impartial cinema. There was additionally some sum of money that filmmakers and producers might entry.

Image Credit: Rediff

Aayush Sharma: Both the movies that you’re a a part of are mainly impartial movies. For All We Imagine As Light, you noticed rather a lot backing arising after the film gained at Cannes. Then, Rana Daggubatti obtained concerned in it. As somebody who’s deeply concerned on this film, did you see any sort of distinction in how the film was taken to theatres or distributors as soon as an individual like Rana obtained into the method?

Ranabir Das: Yes, I imply, he additionally has a distribution firm, so in that sense, he is aware of the exhibitors, he understands the market. I don’t know if it’s merely due to his begin, however yeah, as a distributor, he undoubtedly has some quantity of expertise and information on this space.

Payal Kapadia: I feel it actually helped us as a result of he has, particularly within the south, numerous connections. They come from a household of distribution, and he’s additionally placing weight behind the movie. See, we don’t have the funds for giant posters or to place it on a bus, and even to have it within the cinema. There weren’t any extra conventional strategies like that. So, speaking to the press and having him there to assist was sort of our strategy to attain out.

Aayush Sharma: You’ve beforehand highlighted the challenges of securing funding for impartial movies in India. Could you share extra about your experiences navigating this panorama and the way it formed the journey of bringing ‘All We Imagine as Light’ to life?

Ranabir Das: I imply, initially, it was a bit scary as a result of we didn’t really know if the movie would ever get made. But our producers gave us some quantity of confidence, and we confronted a couple of rejections as nicely. However, as we began getting extra funds and the script started creating additional, we began receiving more cash. With that, we felt extra assured, and we realized that it was a system that helped us.

Payal Kapadia: One factor we discovered all through this course of is what a producer actually is. At least within the West, a producer isn’t somebody who has their very own cash or an organization with funds, however relatively, they’re those who can form your mission in a manner that permits you to safe funding from different sources. It’s actually a collaboration. They will learn the mission and, in the event that they consider in it, they gained’t simply agree with you—they are going to belief their opinion and provide their assist. It’s essential to seek out somebody whose judgment you belief and who additionally believes in you, and who will say, “Okay, let’s do that. Whatever occurs, we’ll make it occur.” We acquired numerous that sort of motivation, even from our producer right here in India. He did his greatest to get the movie off the bottom, discovering the correct individuals for us to work with, and we ended up with a improbable group of collaborators. All of that’s what makes the movie what it’s—not only one individual, however the collective effort of many individuals coming collectively.

Aayush Sharma: I had the pleasure of interviewing Kani Kusruti, and she or he instructed me that you just (Payal) had envisioned her as Anu. So, how did the change occur?

Payal Kapadia: Yeah, again then, after I was nonetheless a pupil, I wrote about two pages of an idea for the movie, a free concept about two buddies who had been nurses. But I hadn’t carried out a lot analysis at the moment. It was only a fundamental thought, and I needed to make a 20-minute movie about it. At that point, I had seen her brief movie Memories of a Machine, and I actually appreciated her efficiency in it, so we needed to forged her as Anu. However, I made a decision to not pursue it for FTII as a result of I felt there was nonetheless rather a lot I wanted to know earlier than making this movie. I didn’t really feel like I had the correct connection on the time, so I let it go. After that, I began researching, assembly extra individuals, gathering tales, and ultimately realized it needed to be a characteristic movie. And that, in fact, takes time. So I’d work on it, then depart it, come again to it, and make one other movie in between. Throughout all this, I saved sending Kanni the script.

I believed I won’t have the ability to do it at a youthful age. Both of us had gotten older, and we had been the identical age, so I puzzled, what might I do? But then she stated, “Let me strive for the older one.” Still, I feel I used to be so fixated on her being Anu that it was initially onerous for me to simply accept that she might play the older model. But she’s simply such a wonderful artist, a beautiful actor, and extremely hardworking. It’s wonderful. She is so inspiring, and I really feel so fortunate to have met her.

Ranabir Das: You know, for Anu, we had seen Divya in ‘Declaration’. Yeah, yeah. And she was enjoying an older character in that movie, so we initially considered her as Prabha.

The forged and crew of ‘All We Imagine As Light’ (Image Credit: Getty Images)

Aayush Sharma: The movie makes use of magical realism and lyrical components within the second half. How do you see this mixing of realism and fantasy as a strategy to discover the interior worlds of your characters? 

Payal Kapadia: Well, I needed to go from this very day-in-the-life fashion of metropolis individuals, utilizing large photographs of a metropolis with a shaky digicam, to go deeper and deeper, till we reached such a detailed level that we might seize the feel of the pores and skin, the hair on the physique, and the grain of sand. We needed to method it as if we had been utilizing a microscope, the place we first present a large shot after which funnel right down to one thing as small because the grain of sand on a person’s physique. The transition from that vérité fashion to one thing like magical realism felt pure, changing into extra inner. I used to be pondering rather a lot about easy methods to specific need, as in our society, it’s not one thing you speak about. How do you say “I like you” in English? How do you say it should you haven’t stated it but? It’s tough. We can’t specific this stuff simply. So I believed, cinematically, how will she hear it, or what’s going to she say? Cinema permits us to talk with out talking. I needed to discover a language in our personal strategy to speak about sure issues, and this gave the impression to be the correct manner, a magical one. I used to be pondering rather a lot about how this had been carried out prior to now.

In Rajasthan, Gujarat, or Karnataka on the western coast, people tales usually inform tales about longing and the lads who go away as retailers. There’s numerous journey and many ladies’s tales about how they can’t discuss to their husbands. One well-known one is Duvida, the place the husband comes again as a ghost, and she or he falls in love with him, however ultimately, he will get caught. There are tales the place the person turns into a tree or a thief. Sangam poetry additionally makes use of nature to speak about longing. I used to be interested by all this stuff, in addition to a brief story by Márquez I learn the place a person washes up in a village. While he’s handed out, the ladies begin saying issues like, ‘Oh, he’s so good-looking,’ or, ‘His household will need to have made large doorways in the home as a result of he’s so tall,’ creating their very own tales. Their wishes are projected onto the dead man. So I used to be on this concept of not having the ability to converse, and the way we begin projecting issues and discover a strategy to launch that ache. In my head, all of it simply made sense.

Payal Kapadia’s ‘ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT’ is enjoying worldwide. 

 

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Written by EGN NEWS DESK

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