CANNES CALLING & THE FEELING OF COLLECTIVE HOPE

PAYAL Kapadia's All We Imagine As Light became the first Indian film in the last 30 years to enter the competition at the Cannes Film Festival

- SHREYAS PANDE

Chetan Anand's Neecha Nagar took India to Cannes all the way back in 1946 for the first time. It told a story of a group of villagers protesting against a landlord and won the Grand Prix award (which later became Palme d'Or) at the festival. To date, no other Indian film has won this prize. The last time an Indian film got nominated to compete for the Palme d'Or was in 1994 when Shaji Karun's Malayalam feature, Swaham, entered the competition, and lost to Quentin Tarantino's gangster drama, Pulp Fiction. And now, 30 years later, Payal Kapadia has taken us to the prestigious competition at the festival, with her film, All We Imagine As light. Fascinatingly, and perhaps unsurprisingly for her abilities, this is not her first time at the Cannes.