All We Imagine As Light: What this Cannes-nominated film can teach us about money and dreams | Mint

The former American President Obama has this film in his annual must see cinema list, Cannes Film Festival celebrates this film with a nomination to the prestigious Palme D’Or award, and numerous film festivals have celebrated the life of the two Malayali nurses working in Mumbai with awards…

It used to be the BBC and other ‘foreign’ television channels that celebrated the strange joy amid poverty in India by showing BMWs and Mercedes Benz cars attempting to navigate the traffic dotted with cattle calmly sitting on the roads. Then we had an art house cinema movement which showed the likes of Smita Patil bathing in the middle of a slum. That has now competition with a woman’s eye on the lives of three women which on the surface look prosaic, but when you look beyond the clutter of shared accommodations you see anticipation of tomorrow in their eyes, you begin to resonate with them and cross your fingers unconsciously and hope their dreams don’t turn out to be illusions. And that’s powerful.

What money lessons can we learn from the humdrum lives of three workers?

Who pays the price of rampant development?

A humble hospital cook, Parvati, played by the incredibly talented Chhaya Kadam, has a big decision to make. She has lived in a chawl for most of her life, and even though people can vouch that she is a resident, she does not have any papers to prove that the ‘kholi’ is hers.

So many of us have been through the crazy run around after inheriting ancestral property which have been part of the family for generations but have no papers or incomplete paperwork that proves ownership. It’s a hassle even if you have someone capable who can deal with lawyers and court applications and municipal corporations and their unending forms.

The builder who is going to demolish the chawl and build a high rise in place has bought off many residents of the chawl. Parvati doesn’t even qualify for that payment because she does not have papers.

Smart investors like you must ensure all paperwork for the sale of old property, which includes the registration of the property in your name as well as other documents that need to be submitted are in order. When you sell property, make sure you learn how much capital gains tax you are accruing with the sale and how soon you should invest that money to pay less tax and so on.

Parvati’s decision to give up on the city and go back home to the village in Ratnagiri is not an easy one and the two other protagonists of the film help her. This is a tiny life lesson, but has implications about your money. If you live decently, in times of trouble, you will have friends who can help you make a new start.

Which is better: An upright life or a hedonist’s life?

Prabha and Anu are flatmates. Their cluttered flat adds to the feeling of claustrophobia of their situations. Prabha (played by Kani Kusruti) is married, but her husband went off to Germany immediately after the nuptials and lives this upright life waiting to hear from him. She even staves off the attention of a doctor at the hospital where she works. Anu (Divya Prabha), her flatmate and fellow nurse is happily dating a Muslim man, knowing her Hindu family would disapprove.

Both women hold on to hope as they live achingly mundane lives. However, their humanity is so delicate, you cannot but wish them well. When Prabha discovers that the man she has rescued turns out to be her husband, her illusions about her upright life where she has denied simple pleasures of company of the opposite sex, of just about anything is sham. We admire her spirit because she tells him to go. Prabha has also judged Anu’s carefree ways. It’s when she invites Anu’s boyfriend Shaz to share the bench and the three rediscover how the city lights beckon them once more.

Investors are either Prabha or Anu. One conservative and the other a bold risk taker. Conservative investors choose to put their noses to the grindstone and work the SIPs or are happy to trust the traditional methods of savings such as fixed deposits. Nothing wrong with earning interest off a savings account. Anu is the kind of person who will take a risk and invest in the stock market. The rewards there are better than just passive savings accounts, and so are the risks. Both lifestyles have their pros and cons, but if you want to get the best lesson from the film: Being rigid about investing style will make you suffer like Prabha – she focuses so much on being upright that she forgets to live. Anu’s carefree life is filled with risks, but at least she has not forgotten how to smile. Amu’s involvement with a man who belongs to another religion is risky, but she is happy with him. Investors need to find that balance between Prabha and Anu and make more money!

After watching senseless violence (no matter how stylised) of movies that are coming at us – Pushpa 2, Marco and others – the gentle almost ordinariness of these characters who take on life differently is a welcome change. It is a challenge to eat popcorn to see the depiction of the invisible, common folk, but then you get yourself that extra coffee that competes with the darkness that is the fourth character in the film…

Manisha Lakhe is a poet, film critic, traveller, founder of Caferati — an online writer’s forum, hosts Mumbai’s oldest open mic, and teaches advertising, films and communication. She can be reached on Twitter at @manishalakhe.