Shape of Momo: Reconceptualizing Conventions

Shape of Momo, the Nepali language film from Sikkim, marks the directorial debut of Tribeny Rai, who also wrote the screenplay and produced the film. The film was showcased at the Indian Panorama section of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) 2024, the 17th Bengaluru International Film Festival 2025 and the recently held Guwahati Asian Film Festival 2025. The title itself is intriguing. It deliberately draws our attention to that "momo" which is not just a food item; it is a cultural signifier and a metaphorical language that tells many stories within a single frame.

The plot of the film is beautifully intricate. A father and daughter from a Sikkimese village travel to the city of Gangtok for a meeting with a school principal about the daughter's admission. The mother of the girl, according to the father, is in Nepal visiting her ailing mother. But the real twist occurs when it is revealed that the mother is actually in jail and the daughter is aware of the truth. The rest of the film is about how the mother is brought back home and the lives of the family members become intertwined with new bonds of love and understanding. What is interesting here is that the screenplay does not merely focus on a single conflict but explores the layers of relationships where silence often speaks more powerfully than words.

The film beautifully deconstructs the stereotypical "good woman" vs "bad woman" binary and presents a more layered and realistic portrayal of womanhood. The three women of the film — the daughter, the mother, and the school principal — are not merely archetypes; they are fully realized individuals. The daughter is the actual hero of the film. She steers the narrative and reshapes the emotional journey of the other characters. She becomes the bridge between the father's silence and the mother's absence. The mother, despite her physical absence, remains a presence throughout the narrative. The school principal provides the necessary emotional counterpoints that challenge conventional notions of femininity. Her role is not supportive but catalytic — she provokes change rather than merely facilitating it.

Visually, the film is a masterclass in the use of an ordinary landscape as an extension of the characters' inner worlds. The mountains, the winding roads, and the fog are not just geographical markers but psychological landscapes — they reflect the confusion, the hope, and the emotional distance between the characters. The fog, in particular, is used as a narrative device to convey uncertainty and obscured truths. The camera lingers on these landscapes, allowing the audience to breathe and reflect, which is a rare quality in contemporary cinema.

The narrative also questions the very idea of home. Is home a physical space or an emotional state? The father and daughter travel away from their village to the city, and later, the mother returns from the city to the village. These journeys redefine what home means — not as a fixed location but as a space of emotional reconciliation. The film uses these spatial movements to map the internal changes of the characters. The home is not where they live; it is where they find each other again.

One of the film's greatest strengths is its subtlety. There are no dramatic confrontations or loud emotional outbursts. The most powerful moments are often the quiet ones — a look exchanged, a hand reaching out, a silence that holds more meaning than words ever could. This restraint gives the film its emotional authenticity and allows the audience to engage with the characters on a deeper level. We are not told what to feel; we are invited to feel alongside them.

The narrative of Shape of Momo is deeply concerned with the emotional negotiation of the characters. It shows how love and understanding do not always come through grand gestures; sometimes they come through small, almost invisible acts of care. The father's struggle to articulate his emotions, the daughter's quiet strength, and the mother's painful journey back to her family — all these elements come together to create a cinematic experience that is both deeply personal and universally relatable.

The film's unconventional structure challenges the audience's expectations. It does not follow a linear cause-and-effect narrative but moves through associative connections, guided by emotion rather than logic. This storytelling approach may feel unfamiliar to some viewers accustomed to conventional narrative structures, but it is precisely this quality that makes Shape of Momo a remarkable piece of cinema.

Shape of Momo is not just a story about a family; it is a story about how we navigate the gaps between what is said and what is left unsaid, between presence and absence, between the shape we show the world and the shape we hide within. The images are not just a reflection of the story but a structure of feeling.