00:00I grew up in a house full of women. I am the third daughter out of four daughters that my
00:04mother has.
00:05I grew up with this constant pressure of patriarchy.
00:08When I say it is a personal film, some of the experiences are based from my life
00:14and that of the experience of other women in my life.
00:17In places like Sikkim, changes do not happen very fast.
00:20The title of the film, Shape of Momo, where how society usually tells women to behave or be a certain
00:27way.
00:28Hello everyone, I am Triveni Rai. I am the writer and director of the film, Shape of Momo,
00:33a Nepali Indian film that is going to release in the theatres on 29th May in India and in Nepal.
00:39I was just saying the same thing.
00:41I want to start by asking a question that is somewhat related to your movie but also not because it
00:47settled this debate.
00:48Is it Momo or Mohos?
00:50Which is correct?
00:51No, it's just Momo.
00:53Yeah, it's like Panipuris.
00:55You know, it is Panipuris. No matter how many.
00:59Sabini, the first question that I want to ask you is, in this movie, all the women are from different
01:06generations
01:07and the way they interact with men and how they deal with patriarchy is of course very different.
01:14So, was it a conscious decision to map out all these different generations in your movie?
01:22Yes, I think it was very important for us because, you know, I think there is just not one way
01:28of dealing with the problem.
01:30Some find Vishnu a very strong-headed person who is dealing with it straight on and then you have her
01:38mother who has smarter ways of doing it
01:40and then you have her sister Junu who has more conventional ways of doing it, you know.
01:46I think they are all in the same boat but it's just that they are fighting the same battle but
01:51in different ways.
01:52Also, most of the men in this movie are largely absent but they still, either they've just passed or they're
02:00on the phone, they're on the periphery.
02:02But their absence affects their daily life a lot. So, how did you come up with that?
02:09I grew up in a house full of women. I am the third daughter out of four daughters that my
02:13mother has and my dad passed away early on.
02:16So, I grew up in a house full of women and I grew up with this constant pressure of patriarchy
02:22and I understood that it does not take a male and female for patriarchy to function, you know.
02:28Even in the absence of male, it is so deeply ingrained that it will function and it will still continue
02:34to pressurize all of us.
02:36So, we wanted to consciously bring forth this interestingly in this sense where the men are missing or either they
02:44are the secondary characters
02:45which usually women tend to play in all the other films and still the problem persists.
02:50When I say it is a personal film, I mean some of the experiences are based from my life and
02:58that of the experience of other women in my life, you know.
03:01And after all the festival rounds that we have done, I have realized that because I have told it from
03:06a place of honesty,
03:07a lot of other women are able to resonate, not just women, individuals, yeah.
03:11For a modern woman to take a decision for herself is quite easy, you know.
03:15If Vishnu decides tomorrow, okay, I am leaving this village and moving to Delhi, it's no big deal.
03:20But for someone like her mother who is still part of the society, who is still conventionally, you know, part
03:26of the problem, you know.
03:28For her to say, tell her daughter to move ahead in life, to leave behind the village and to leave
03:35her, I think makes all the difference.
03:37I think in places like Sikkim, changes do not happen very fast, you know, the place and time slows down
03:44and changes also you will see only a slight change in your heart or emotion.
03:50So that's how I wanted to portray it.
03:53I wanted her mother to be the one to tell her to leave this behind, yeah.
03:57So when we think of a momo, I believe a lot of it depends on how it's shaped and that
04:04is how the feeling kind of fits into it.
04:07So we don't think Vishnu's life is a little like the shape of a momo, wherein she's being forced into
04:14a certain version of herself by her family or traditions,
04:18where she has to quit her job and come back to her hometown.
04:22This is exactly why we kept the title of the film Shape of Momo, where how society usually, you know,
04:30tells women to behave or be a certain way.
04:33And I think when our protagonist does not know how to make momo and she does not care, you know,
04:39I think the small act of resistance goes a long way for all of us.
04:43And this is where we wanted to start a conversation around it.
04:47Northeastern films have lately been missing a lot of love globally and winning it at major film festivals.
04:54And like you said, you've shot the film mostly in Nepali and you haven't tried to make the film Masi
05:01for the larger pan-Indian audience.
05:04So do you think the specificity of the film also had a role to play in winning such love on
05:13a global level?
05:14I think when you don't have your representation in front of you, growing up in the kind of films that
05:21I watch,
05:21I never saw my representation physically, emotionally.
05:25So I think that sort of made me want to tell stories about our people and our place.
05:30So that is why I have made this film in Nepali language.
05:34It's true that, you know, people from Northeast are discriminated in mainland.
05:38There are so many heartbreaking instances, you know, but back home also, especially in Sikkim,
05:43when people come to construct the road, the daily wage laborers are either from UP or Bihar
05:48and they also face discrimination, you know, of a different degree.
05:52India is so diverse that we should understand that, you know, we belong to the same country.
05:57And I think migration is not just a problem of India.
05:59If you look world over right now, we are facing the same problem, you know.
06:04And I say awareness and education is one solution and another is empathy,
06:10where we treat another individual, another gender as an equal.
06:15I think that is what the conversation this film is trying to start.
06:19I have shot this film in my village because I want to represent our stories in platforms
06:27where it is important, you know, and it is a great time to be making films,
06:31especially in the Northeast with such powerful women filmmakers telling these stories.
06:35I just hope we are able to open more opportunities for other filmmakers, you know.
06:40I just feel like if someone from Sikkim where the film industry is at such a nascent stage
06:45which is able to make a film and now have a theatrical release in India and in Nepal,
06:50if I can, I think anyone can.
06:52And it was very important for me to tell the story in my own language
06:55so that the coming generation will not face the kind of distress that I have faced.
07:00Women from the Northeast are often portrayed as very progressive and independent in Bollywood movies
07:05like we always see.
07:06If they want to show a very modern, progressive women, they usually cast a Northeastern woman.
07:12So, like we also saw in the shape of Momo,
07:16Patriarchy still exists in the Northeast.
07:19We are told that it is a major linear society,
07:21but we still see that women take most of their decisions based on the men in their lives.
07:26So, how important was it for you to show that reality?
07:30You know, patriarchy exists everywhere.
07:32It is just a matter of degree, you know,
07:34where there are places where the dowry system still exists,
07:39you know, honor killing still exists,
07:40and there are places where it does not,
07:42but it is there in everyday ordinary things, you know.
07:46And for people to say, you know,
07:48Northeast region is progressive and liberal, you know,
07:53but they are like, you know,
07:54it's more progressive than, let's say, Delhi or other northern states.
07:59But what is progressive enough or what is liberal enough,
08:01I think the women should get to decide, the women from there.
08:04I recently read an article where, you know,
08:07they said it is a matriarchal society,
08:09but if the woman marries someone outside the caste,
08:13then they are going to send her away, you know.
08:16So, is that the kind of power that they want to give women there, you know.
08:20I am very grateful that, you know, it's far safer.
08:23We have better facilities.
08:25People can express themselves.
08:27Women can express themselves and can say you are an equal.
08:30But, you know, I think equality does not exist in those things.
08:34It exists in very ordinary, everyday things,
08:36which we have tried to portray in the film.
08:39And the same also shows us how families still place a lot of importance
08:43on having a male child.
08:44So, what are your views on that?
08:47I think it is still very prevalent.
08:49I think there are people now who are educated and progressive
08:53and consider both men and women equal.
08:57But it's still very prevalent.
08:58I think the kind of pressure that I have faced in my society
09:01because my parents were not able to give birth to a son
09:04to carry forward the legacy of the family
09:06to a point where I had to make this film
09:08says a lot about how our society is, you know.
09:12So, I just hope we are all able to be empathetic towards each other
09:15and hope we are able to treat each other as an equal.
09:19India already, I think, does not have a lot of film schools.
09:23There are only a few film schools.
09:24I don't think there are any film schools in the Northeast,
09:27but we have seen a lot of great films and filmmakers coming from Northeast now.
09:31What is your opinion on that, the lack of film schools in India?
09:35I would not have access to, say, Bombay industry
09:38or for that matter, Bengali industry.
09:41So, for a person like me who has had no knowledge about films,
09:45I think it is very important to go to a place like film school
09:48and educate yourself about cinema.
09:51Of late, I think, two years back,
09:53they have started a film school in Arunachal.
09:56It is also called Film and Television Institute.
09:58They have another government film school in Goa-Hatti, Assam.
10:02But I think more is more the merrier.
10:04I think it's better students get more opportunity
10:06and it is such an expensive, you know, profession and training
10:12that if government then opens schools like that at subsidized rate,
10:16I think everybody then can afford and dream to become a filmmaker.
10:20As one advice, someone sitting in a room somewhere
10:24thinking of becoming a filmmaker, what would you like to tell them?
10:27Don't.
10:30I think I've been just saying the same thing.
10:35I think if a girl like me from Sikkim,
10:38who started from nothing, you know,
10:40I went to a film school and dreamt of making a film
10:42that would release in theatres,
10:44has a film now that is going to release in theatres very soon.
10:48If I can do it, I think everybody can do it.
10:52Perseverance is the key.
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