'Shape of Momo' Filmmaker Tribeny Rai on the 'Burden' of Feminist Cinema: 'You Only Champion the Woman if She is Righteous'

“I think it is a very important conversation that should have started long back, and we tried our best,” says filmmaker Tribeny Rai, discussing the structural burden feminist cinema carries to constantly portray female protagonists in an ideal, universally accepted light. Discussing her feature debut Shape of Momo, Rai is actively challenging the rigid, "ideal" boxes female protagonists are traditionally forced into.

“Even with feminist films, you only champion the woman if she is righteous or follows the code of the society,” Rai observes, noting how she intentionally sought to subvert this expectation to “take off the burden for myself and for the younger generations especially, when we were making her unconventional."

The feature is backed by filmmakers Zoya Akhtar, Reema Kagti and Payal Kapadia, who have come on board as Executive Producers. Shape of Momo has released in cinemas on Friday in India and Nepal by actor Rana Daggubati’s Spirit Media.

The film follows Bishnu, played Gaumaya Gurung, a young woman who leaves her life in Delhi to return to her ancestral home in Sikkim, navigating the complexities of everyday life in the village, family expectations, and the new identity she forms through it.

Rai believes the film’s resonance stems entirely from how flawed and real Bishnu is. She recalls that during the film's festival run, viewers would approach her and admit they were only able to empathise with Gurung’s character up until a certain point.

Beyond character subversion, the debut filmmaker also wanted to dismantle the exoticised, postcard view of Sikkim and its people.

“They (filmmakers from the outside) usually come for the landscape, and not for the stories." As a director, she views it as her core responsibility to prioritise human narratives over aesthetic tourism and to “show the story and not the beauty."

Rai and her crew was incredibly conscious during production to actively de-emphasise the region's conventional scenic appeal. The aim was to show “less beauty as much as possible, because it has to be about the people and not the beauty of the place.”

Rai further emphasised that people from the hills are frequently patronised and reduced to cinematic simpletons. "We wanted to put forward a story of actual complexity — to show that people from Sikkim are just as complex as people from Mumbai. We wanted to give them that dignity."