Director: Payal Kapadia

Stars: Kani Kusruti, Divya Prabha, Chhaya Kadam, Hridhu Haroon

Writer-director Kapadia’s deeply empathetic depiction of urban and rural life in India profiles a trio of working class women in Mumbai. Prabha (Kusruti) is a hardworking nurse in a shabby hospital. She had an arranged marriage some years earlier, but her husband left for Germany soon after, and it is unclear when he will return. Meanwhile her colleague and close friend Parvaty (Kadam), a widow, is being evicted from her apartment by property developers and is contemplating returning to her village. Prabha shares her apartment with Anu (Prabha), a spirited young woman who is having an affair with a local Muslim man, Shiaz (Haroon). At first, the relationship between the sensible Prabha and rebellious Anu is strained, but gradually the two women grow to rely on each other. In the second part, the three women go to Parvaty’s coastal town and reflect on their life options. This is an exquisitely melancholy and lyrical study of longing, loneliness, and female solidarity, leavened with moments of grace and joy, with cinematographer Ranabir Das locating a bruised romanticism in the dilapidated Mumbai environs, illuminated by neon and mobile phone lights. The trio of leads are wonderful, particularly Kusruti’s soulful turn as a guarded woman whose heart is thawing.

David Willoughby

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