Bishnu (Gaumaya Gurung) is a writer in her bones, which explains why we see her continuously grappling with the world. While those around Bishnu go through life with less fuss, we see her recording nearly all experiences from outside, trying to gauge the subtext of each and every conversation, the pauses, closely examining one’s train of thought, questioning it, and trying to understand why one bit leads to the other. An insider-outsider in her village in Sikkim, having returned after quitting a copywriting job in Delhi, she sees the town with a new set of eyes.

Tribeny Rai’s Shape of Momo takes the idea of a ‘homecoming film’ – where characters are usually forced to visit home and resolve their friction with the place – and flips it.

With Bishnu, it is a homecoming, alright. But the place doesn’t carry any real trauma for her; if anything, she remembers growing up loved. However, after experiencing life in a cosmopolitan culture, she’s forced to stop romanticising her town and sees it for what it is. Often, home becomes a prison, and the nostalgia becomes an extension of the Stockholm Syndrome it perpetuates.

A still from Tribeny Rai’s Shape of Momo, 2026.

Rai has described the film as autobiographical in many post-screening chats and interviews. A detail that is only reinforced by the fact that she cast her own mother........

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