‘Shape Of Momo’ review: Stirring, authentic drama sees a woman return to her Indian home village

Dir: Tribeny Rai. India. 2025. 114mins

Coming back from a life within the metropolis to her small house village in Sikkim (a tiny state in India’s northeast, bordering Nepal, China, Bhutan and West Bengal), Bishnu (Gaumaya Gurung) sits amongst a bunch of mates and family members, proudly studying a chunk of advert copy she wrote on the job she simply stop. After some faint reward about it sounding like poetry, the topic rapidly turns to which of the few males within the village could be good husband materials for her. Bishnu’s crestfallen expression says all of it, however debut author and director Tribeny Rai has lots extra on her thoughts in Form Of Momo.

The movie’s refusal to melt Bishun’s spiky edges make her that rather more relatable 

A phenomenal Himalayan canvas masks the irritating challenges Bishnu and the ladies round her face in navigating the calls for of custom and the ambitions of modernity. But whereas Rai, a local of the area, questions these calls for – in addition to easy methods to adapt to them – she by no means condemns them, or the individuals who uphold them. It’s a difficult needle to string, however Rai’s assured debut does so effortlessly and authentically.

Taking part in at Goa after its premiere at Busan (the place it gained the Songwon Imaginative and prescient and Taipei Movie Fee awards) and slots at Hamburg and San Sebastian, Form Of Momo is effectively positioned for a wholesome ongoing pageant run, notably amongst specialty occasions. Adventurous artwork home distributors searching for work from the extra under-the-radar corners of India’s sprawling movie trade might also take discover. Archana Ghangrekar’s widescreen cinematography deserves to be seen on an enormous stream however area of interest streamers may also probably have an interest, notably given the intimate material.

The titular momo – basically a Nepalese dumpling or pierogi – performs an element in Bishnu’s story and gives one thing of a through-line for the narrative, popping as much as be made, shared or devoured as wanted; the last word image of customized and cultural connective tissue. Momos can trace at all the things from female failure and the suffocating weight of obligation once they’re misshapen, to trustworthy emotional connection that happens when sisters stand over the kitchen counter stuffing pastry.

Bishnu (relative newcomer Gurung in a breakthrough efficiency) goes about re-settling into her hometown after giving up on Delhi. She’s surrounded by three generations of ladies, all of whom reside below the thumb of patriarchal traditions that Bishnu believes are now not vital. Her aged grandmother (Bhanu Maya Rai) waits patiently for her son in Dubai to return and get her. Her mom (Pashupati Rai) bears the burden of duty for each the household and the neighborhood. Her older pregnant sister Junu (Shyama Shree Sherpa) is hiding from her husband and her in-laws within the household house as she works out a private disaster.

Naturally, the impartial Bishnu decides it’s her job to repair these girls, to handle inequalities and show they don’t have to do as they’re instructed the way in which. Issues are sophisticated by her rising attachment to an architect, Gyan (Rahul Mukhia), that has the village buzzing and Bishnu questioning simply how dedicated to her convictions she actually is.

Form of Momo is unapologetically humanist and feminist (which many would argue are one and the identical), and Rai and co-writer Kislay’s nuanced script is a present that retains on giving, seamlessly weaving collectively peripheral points into Bishnu’s grownup coming-of-age. Using language, the spectre of migrant labour and looming growth all inform Bishnu’s actions, which unsurprisingly disrupt her ancestral neighborhood. Her business-first bluster makes an antagonist of a tenant who rents land from the household, she rapidly alienates male staff with calls for she expects them to obey, and her aggressive behaviour makes her mom worry for her personal standing on the town.

Bishnu is tough to love, however the movie’s refusal to melt her spiky edges make her that rather more relatable as she stands on the tough three-way intersection of obligation, identification and company. In a remaining letter to everybody and nobody, Bishnu writes, ‘The issues that exhaust us make us who we’re’; tacit acknowledgment that progress is a course of, and that traditions can exist in a love-hate dynamic. By crafting a geographically and culturally particular story of private development, and wrapping it in vivid, crisp pictures, Rai has created a universally recognisable story as simple to digest because the titular momo.