Payal Kapadia shares the films that helped shape All We Imagine as Light • Journal • A Magazine • , Life in canada

Saeed Akhtar Mirza’s films are amazing. He made a film called Salim Langde Pe Mat Ro, which is a very quintessential Mumbai film about an underdog chap who has some kind of existential crisis. Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro is a great film as well! There’s also a documentary by Madhusree Dutta called Seven Islands and a Metro, which is a very interesting film, and, of course, Mira Nair’s Salaam Bombay! is an epic Bombay film—you can’t forget about that.

When you were making your film, what was important in terms of the way you were going to represent the city?

We wanted to steer clear of very typically iconic Mumbai landmarks. What we felt was very important, and we believe is a landmark in Mumbai, is the local trains—like what you call the subway, which is not a subway for us, because it’s overground. It’s like the main heart line of Mumbai, because if you live there, you will have to take the train. Otherwise, it’s crazy traffic and you’ll be in trouble, and it’s also expensive, so the trains are the lifelines of the city.

When you’re sitting on a train, it feels like you’re in this long tracking shot, and it gives you this beautiful sense of the city as it passes you by in different areas. You get a sense of history, the sense of flux and change… the feeling of the lights as they come and pass you, the kind of tiredness you see in these lives all moving together—there’s something so cinematic.