The Cannes Film Festival is going to be special this year because after, a long wait of three decades, Indians have got something to be excited about. For more than 20 years now, the Cannes Film Festival and India meant the looks of Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.
But, we finally have a movie from India to be selected by the Cannes jury. Payal Kapadia’s first fiction movie, “All We Imagine As Light,” got selected to compete for the big award called the Palme d’Or. This is a huge deal for Indian films because it’s been almost 30 years since an Indian movie was in this competition. Kapadia’s film is about a nurse named Prabha who gets a surprise from her husband, and it changes her life. She and her roommate Anu go on a trip, and it becomes a journey of self-discovery.
Even though this is Kapadia’s first fiction movie, she already won an award at Cannes last year for her documentary “A Night of Knowing Nothing.” It’s a beautiful film about a student’s letters and the feelings they express.
Okay, so a general knowledge test. If it is the first Indian film to even compete in this category from last 30 years then do you think that India ever won Palme d’Or? Yes, we did. But, in the pre-independence era. The winner film was Neecha Nagar (1946) by Chetan Anand. It is a brilliant masterpiece and you must watch it if you are interested in such kind of films.