Meet Nalini Malani: Revered Artist, Mom Of Cannes-Winning Filmmaker Payal Kapadia

As Indian filmmaker Payal Kapadia, director of the award-winning film All We Imagine As Light, had numerous reasons to celebrate in 2024, we look at one of the many women who inspired her artistic journey. Nalini Malani, Kapadia's mother, is a globally acclaimed artist who has enjoyed her fair share of achieving historic milestones. She is among India's pioneering generation of visual artists, using mixed media to powerfully convey profound and thought-provoking issues. 

Nalini Malani's Impeccable Work

Malani was born in Karachi, a year before it became a part of Pakistan, and moved to Kolkata during partition. She grew up in Mumbai. Her experiences around the country's changing socio-politics right from her childhood shaped her choices, leading her to opt for Arts at JJ School of Art, Mumbai. She also earned a French Government Scholarship for Fine Arts to study in Paris in 1970 and an Art Fellowship from the Government of India in 1984.

Known for her impeccable visual art sense, Malani is popular for her digital drawings and animations. Her artwork includes mixed media paintings, videos and theatre. Her artwork also majorly pays tribute to the struggles of women, symbolising the feminist issues around her. 

In 2019, Nalini Malani became the first Indian to win the coveted Spanish award, the Joan Miro Prize of 70,000 euros. The Joan Miro Foundation acknowledged her "longstanding commitment to the silenced and the dispossessed all over the world, most particularly women, through a complex artistic quest based on immersive installations and a personal iconography."

Malani has also bagged the prestigious Kyoto Prize of $700,000 for her contribution to the world of art and philosophy. The Kyoto Prize is an annual grant and is popularly also referred to as Japan's Nobel Prize. It's the highest private award in Japan given to people for their outstanding, and trailblasing contribution to the world of arts and philosophy, sciences and technology. 

Malani's work is greatly inspired by the struggles of people she saw around her right from her childhood; whether it's tales of migration, issues around women and their rights, or the social-political changes that impacted the country's population, she covered it all. One of her recent works also traced the devastating COVID-19 lockdowns and the struggles of migrant workers across India. 

How Nalini Malani Influenced Payal Kapadia

In 2016, Nalini Malani began a series called All We Imagine Of Light. Eight years later, Payal Kapadia was inspired to name her film after this collection. The filmmaker has often spoken about how the women in her life have been a driving force to her, whether in her filmography or personal life. In an interview with SheThePeople, she shared, "I’ve been enriched by friendships with women of different ages," which is what she wanted to bring out in the Cannes-awarded film.

Kapadia also revealed that she wanted to follow in her mother's footsteps and pursue fine arts before finding her calling in filmmaking. "Cinema, like any art form, has a responsibility to respond to the world. For me, my films reflect the questions I have about society and the relationships we accept or reject," she expressed. “It’s my way of understanding and questioning our society."