Shape of Momo review
Cast: Gaumaya Gurung, Pashupati Rai, Shyamashree Sherpa, Bishnu Maya Rai, Rahul Mukhia
Director: Tribeny Rai
Star rating: ★★★★
Tribeny Rai’s directorial debut, Shape of Momo, is as delicately layered and tender as its titular dish. From the first scene itself, you can tell that you are in the hands of someone safe and collected who is going to tell this story with a lot of grace. It is a character study constructed on the slightest of shifts and tempers, to decode the way in which a young woman is shown her place in a deeply patriarchal and invasive society at large.
The premise
A poem is being read out by Bishnu (Gaumaya Gurung), who has returned from Delhi to her village in Sikkim. Her mother is proud, and the relatives and neighbours praise how well she has turned out, even after the passing of her father. The next instant, it is about Bishnu’s marriage that is being discussed, as she sits there quietly shocked at the turn of words on her personal life.
Bishnu is tired of the questions. But for how long can she keep these questions at bay? The Indian middle-class loves to establish a certain yardstick for its men and women, especially women. You go to college, get a proper job, then get married, and then have kids. It is the basic route map to leading a successful, healthy life. Tribeny Rai’s open-hearted film, which played at the International Film Festival of Kerala, flows from one conversation to another as it traces Bishnu’s gradual disillusionment with the place called home. She realises love has little to do with the mounting expectations on her, as a daughter of the house.
Time and time again, Bishnu is reminded by her mother (Pashupati Rai) that this small village is not her big city-Delhi, that she can do whatever she wants. The city is a land far away, a concept of freedom that her home cannot trace. Her elder sister Junu (Shyama Shree Sherpa), who is pregnant, arrives home and Bishnu soon realises that she is not really happy. Once a promising basketball player, she is now relegated to the house, coming to terms with what her future will look like once the baby arrives. The family is complete with Bishnu’s grandmother (a wonderful, scene-stealing turn from Bhanu Maya Rai), who eagerly awaits the arrival of her elder son, as he has promised to take her to Dubai this time.
What works
Tribeny’s frames are confident and assured. The early scenes where she establishes the multi-generational family at the dinner table and garden are a delight. One particular scene goes from the discussion on the shape of momos to the sound of farts, with a dazzling ear for dialogue. Bishnu’s rebellion really has no shape or cause, and she will soon realise, she can never be the man of the family. Not that she wants to, but at several occasions, she is reminded of the many little ways in which women are perceived for their secondary roles, as care-givers, as passive observes who must always oblige.
This is a story fuelled with a silent kind of rage, the kind of rage that does not find an outburst because everything is so exhausting and every answer leads to a confrontation. Bishnu does not want that, she just wants to live. Shape of Momo, which slightly gets weighed down in the second half, understands its protagonist and stays with her. Gaumaya Gurung gives a nuanced and confident turn, and Rai saves her from being constantly under the scanner. When she finally voices her opinion, it is merely one line, but that one line is more than enough to silence the entire room. We have all been there. This is a special film and an accomplished directorial debut from Rai, radiant in its wistful ambition and scope.
