Saibal Chatterjee reviews Tribeny Rai's deeply personal and moving debut feature Shape of Momo, a nuanced exploration of womanhood, belonging, identity, and resistance within the confines of a traditional Sikkimese society.

Shape of Momo (Nepali title: Chhora Jastai), directed by Tribeny Rai, emerges as one of the most compelling independent films of the year. Set in the picturesque landscapes of Sikkim, this intimate coming-of-age drama explores themes of womanhood, identity, migration, family expectations, and personal freedom. In this review, critic Saibal Chatterjee examines how Rai crafts a powerful narrative about a young woman's struggle to reconcile her evolving sense of self with the expectations of the community she once called home.

First-time director Tribeny Rai’s Nepali-language Shape of Momo starts with a poem that the protagonist, a young woman who has quit her job in Delhi and retreated to her family home in Sikkim, recites, intoning each word with intent and clarity.

The lines in English – she penned them for a newspaper back in Delhi – speak about pondering “life’s meaning in quiet reflection” and “seeking truth’s essence”. The film does just that and strictly from the standpoint of a young woman whose sense of self and belonging are put to the test when being at home isn’t as easy as it sounds.  

Her mother and their local acquaintances are impressed with the lyrical felicity of the verse, but none of them can still think beyond the need to find a suitable boy for the girl who has drifted away from her roots and no longer thinks and acts like one of them.

The poem captures the essence and spirit of Shape of Momo (Nepali title: Chhora Jastai, meaning Just Like a Boy). And the subsequent conflict between who the protagonist has become and who her hometown wants her to be defines the drama that she is at the centre of. 

Shape of Momo, produced by Geeta Rai and Kislay and written by the latter with Tribeny Rai, dwells upon dimensions of womanhood in an orthodox, difficult-to-change society with touches that are both poetic and precise. The methods are strikingly minimalistic but the impact is unfailingly telling. 

This is a film that does not raise its voice. It does not need to because it is sure of the point it wants to make. It whispers its laments, misgivings and assertions gently into our ears as it spells out the ramifications of a homecoming that is fraught with imponderables.

Shape of Momo, which is about belonging to a family, moving away, returning, seeking to fit in and the intrinsic challenges that the process entails, delves into the impulses and urges of its key characters – four women from three generations navigating the collision between individual urges and societal expectations.

Inspired by the Sikkimese filmmaker’s personal experiences upon her return home from film school, Shape of Momo is a debut feature. It is marked by remarkable grasp over cinematic and narrative resources. There is nary a note in the film, technical or textual, that feels out of place.

While the director harnesses her actors to perfection, cinematographer Archana Ghangrekar’s unobtrusive but efficacious camerawork captures the landscapes and the interiors with equal efficiency.

After a long hiatus, Bishnu (Gaumaya Gurung) is back with her family, made up of her industrious mother (Pashupati Rai), ailing grandmother (Bhanu Maya Rai) and pregnant sister Junu (Shyama Shree Sherpa). They live in a big house, own an orange orchard and are comfortable materially. But none of the four is at ease with the world that they inhabit.

But while the older women appear to have somewhat reconciled themselves to their fates, Bishnu, having seen what the world has on offer for independent women who want out, is made of sterner stuff.

She is not one to subscribe to either the chauvinism rampant around her or the ingrained prejudice that her mother has towards the migrants who have pitched a tent near their house and work in the fields nearby. Bishnu has been a migrant herself and sees the world differently.

Hers is a family without men. Bishnu’s father and grandfather are dead. An uncle who lives in Dubai with his Korean wife is scheduled to arrive any day and take his mother, Bishnu’s grandmother, with him. The old woman is understandably excited.

The only men around are house help Padam (Sonam Bomzon), a tenant (Deepak Sharma) and his disgruntled son (Wangden Sherpa), besides the stranger who strays into the compound at night in search of water. The family also has two guard dogs – we never see them, only hear them barking furiously.    

Grandmother, who has seen and done it all and is reconciled to the hand that life has dealt her, lives in hope of seeing only surviving son. Mother has learnt as a woman to endure and tolerate everything. I won’t, says Bishnu. She is at odds with what is expected of her.

To Bishnu, the plight of her elder sister represents a cautionary tale. Junu gave up her studies and basketball prospects in order to settle into matrimony. “I wasted my life,” she sobs at one point in the film. Bishnu tries to get Junu out of the emotional trough but runs into inevitable stumbling blocks.

A man, mild-mannered architect Gyan (Rahul Nawach Mukhia) who is a also a Delhi returnee, enters Bishnu’s life after a chance encounter in a general provisions store. He offers to help her out with the homestay she intends to build. The relationship blossoms and begins to transcend the merely professional. But is she ready to take the plunge?

That question acquires great importance in this finely chiselled memoir of a girl who has seen too many women in her immediate surroundings lose control of their lives without fully comprehending how to let the same fate befall her. 

The portrait that Shape of Momo paints with delicate strokes – the title stems from the shapeless momo that Bishnu makes and is ridiculed for – is perfectly structured. Both intimate and universal, moving and though-provoking, Tribeny Rai’s deeply personal film that speaks to us all. Not to be missed.  

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