Drishyam Films Gujarati short Rammat Gammat by Ajitpal Singh releasing on Mubi on March 20th as 'Film of The Day'

 

After World Premiering at the prestigious 64th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen and winning the ‘Special Mention’ award, the Gujarati language short film Rammat-Gammat produced by Drishyam Films and written-directed by Ajitpal Singh, to release on Mubi on March 20^th

 

~Produced by Accord Equips and Mauli Singh, the internationally acclaimed short film was selected in nearly 50 international and Indian film festivals in over 25 countries  and won 6 awards and distinctions~

 

~The short film had its North American Premiere at the Oscar Qualifying, 24th Palm Springs Short Fest and Indian Premiere at Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival in Half Ticket. It was the only Indian film selected in the largest and prestigious children’s film festival in the world, CINEKID 2018~

 

Teaser out now: https://youtu.be/g8Svk6nFRjU

 

Mumbai, March 19th, 2021: After World Premiering at the prestigious 64th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen where it won the ‘Special Mention’ award, Drishyam Films’ award-winning short film Rammat-Gammat (My Best Friend Shoes) to release on Mubi on March 20^th 2021 as the ‘Film of the Day‘.

 

The Gujarati language short is written-directed by Ajitpal Singh, whose debut feature Fire In The Mountains had its World Premiere at Sundance Film Festival 2021 in the ‘World Cinema Dramatic Competition’, as the only film from South Asia to be selected among the 10 films competing in the section.

  

Rammat-Gammat is a moving tale of two young boys from different backgrounds who bond over soccer, until a new pair of shoes strains their friendship. It’s a simple story of complex characters, which will spark a discussion about merit vs money, poor vs privileged, class and caste divides and the role of friendship in it.

 

The 18-minutes narrative short introduces two young newcomers from Gujarat, Shivam Math and Yash Patel, who are excellent football players in real life and have represented their cities at state level and won awards. The short features all first time and non-professional actors except Swati Das (Hindi Medium, Bombay Talkies, Vagina Monologues) who plays a significant role in the short.

 

Rammat-Gammat was selected in nearly 50 noted international and Indian film festivals in over 25 countries and won 6 awards and distinctions. The short had its World Premiere at the prestigious 64th edition of International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, Germany in May 2018 where it won ‘Special Mention’ in international children's film competition, North American Premiere at the Oscar Qualifying, 24th Palm Springs Short Fest in international competition and India Premiere at Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival in international competition in Half Ticket. It was the only Indian film selected in CINEKID, Amsterdam 2018, known as the largest children's film festival in the world.

 

 

 

Elated about the release of the film on Mubi, Manish Mundra, founder of Drishyam Films says, “After touring over 50 international film festivals in nearly 30 countries, I am extremely thrilled that Rammat Gammat is finally coming on a prestigious platform like Mubi that showcases quality independent cinema from all over the world. We hope this to be the beginning of a long, fruitful association with them.”

Self-taught filmmaker Ajitpal Singh says, “I am super thrilled that Rammat-Gammat is coming on Mubi, I hope this film can touch and unite many hearts and help viewers see beyond the limitations of us vs them, like children can.”

“The short film has played an important part in my journey as a filmmaker and got me an opportunity to make my debut feature, Fire In The Mountains. I am grateful to Drishyam Films, Manish Mundra for funding the short film and giving me freedom to make it the way I wanted to, and Accord Equips for giving us the equipment support. We were fortunate to start our festival journey with Oberhausen and winning an award there” the writer-director adds.

 

Rammat Gammat is produced by Drishyam Films, Tejash Shah (Accord Equips) and Mauli Singh and is shot in the Ghats of Wilson Hill, Gujarat.

 

Directors Statement:

How do you feel when you are assumed to be a thief because your father is a thief? How do you feel when you are not welcomed in your best friend’s home because you are from the lower caste? How do you feel when your mother is sleeping with the police officer who arrested your father? How do you feel when the only friend that you have got is leaving you alone in the village? This film is an attempt to revisit my memories of growing up as a minority facing discrimination from the majority. I hope to show that when we choose love over hate, humanity can be saved. Rammat - Gammat is a very relevant story in today’s hate filled time across the world.

 

About Ajitpal Singh: Writer-director

Ajitpal Singh is a self-taught filmmaker living in Mumbai. His debut feature as a writer-director Fire In The Mountains had its world premiere at Sundance 2021 in 'World Cinema Dramatic Competition’ as the only film from India and South Asia to be selected among the 10 films competing in the section.

 

Earlier titled Swizerland, FITM won best WIP project at 2019 Film Bazaar's Work-In-Progress Lab. The screenplay was selected for NFDC Screenwriters’ Lab 2018-19 and was part of 2020 Marche Du Films’ Goes to Cannes.

 

His short film Rammat-Gammat won the ‘Special Mention’ award at the prestigious Oberhausen 2018, and was selected in nearly 50 noted film festivals including Palm Spring Shorts Fest, Cinekid, MAMI and won 6 awards and distinctions. His other short film, Hummingbird which also travelled to many international film festivals, won a jury award for best short film in France. 

 

Ajitpal's first screenplay was part of Sundance Screenwriters Lab 2012 where it won the Sundance Grant. His mentors were Oscar winner filmmaker Asif Kapadia (Amy) and Oscar Nominated screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga (Amores Perros, Babel and 21 Grams), Michael Goldenberg (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix), José Rivera (The Motorcycle Diaries), Howard A. Rodman (Savage Grace) and Marcos Bernstein (Oscar nominated Brazilian film Central Station).

 

His second screenplay (FITM) was selected for NFDC Screenwriters’ Lab. He was also part of Berlinale Talent Campus and the youngest member of Indian delegation at Munich Film Festival 2009, selected by Goethe Institute.

 

Ajitpal wrote dialogues for Once Again (Netflix), worked as an associate director for Gurgaon (Netflix) and as an assistant director for Patang (Berlinale). He also worked on 14 international documentaries as a researcher and field producer.

 

Born in Punjab, Singh was 8 years old when his father, a farmer and ex-army man, ran a cinema hall in Bathinda which suffered huge losses and was shut down during insurgency. His family moved to Ahmedabad where his father took up a job of a security guard. Ajitpal grew up in a ghetto amidst poverty and violence and he faced a lot of discrimination due to anti Sikh sentiments in India at that time. 

 

After studying chemistry, learning theatre and photography, he chose filmmaking as his calling. His greatest passions are writing, reading, cooking, cycling and travelling. Cycling is his mode of commuting in Mumbai and he uses an old-fashioned Nokia phone.

 

About Drishyam Films

A company born out of love for cinema, Drishyam Films aims to build a platform for unique voices of Indian independent cinema and create global content with
rich Indian flavours.Their filmmaking journey started with the award-winning film Ankhon Dekhi directed by Rajat Kapoor. Its success was followed by Umrika directed by Prashant Nair, which premiered at Sundance Film Festival 2015 and bagged the Audience Choice Award. Soon after, Dhanak directed by Nagesh Kukunoor won the Grand Jury prize at Berlinale 2015, Masaan directed by Neeraj Ghaywan picked up two big awards at Cannes 2015. Newton directed by Amit Masurkar premiered at Berlinale Forum 2017 and was India’s entry to Oscars 2017. Newton was followed by Rukh and Kadvi Hawa (which won Special Mention at National Awards 2017. Kaamyaab (Round Figure) directed by National Award-winning director Hardik Mehta premiered at the Busan Film Festival 2017. Their most recent film Tryst With Destiny by Prashant Nair won the Best Screenplay at Tribece Film Festival 2020. They recently released the critically acclaimed Seema Pahwa’s directorial debut Ram Prasad Ki Tehrvi starring Supriya Pathak, Konkana Sen Sharma, Parambrata Chatterjee, Vikrant Massey etc.Their upcoming film titled Love Hostel is a co-production with Red Chillies to be directed by Shanker Raman, starring Sanya malhotra, Vikrant Massey and Bobby Deol. Drishyam Films partnered with the Sundance Institute, USA during 2015- 2016 to organize a Screenwriters’ lab for Indian writers.

 

About Mubi

MUBI is a streaming platform that focuses on classic and arthouse cinema.

 

It also produces and theatrically distributes films by emerging and established filmmakers, which are exclusively available on its platform. Additionally, it publishes Notebook, a film criticism and news publication, and provides weekly cinema tickets to selected new release films through MUBI GO. MUBI's streaming platform is available in over 190 countries on the web, Roku devices, PlayStation, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, LG and Samsung Smart TVs, as well as on mobile devices including iPhone, iPad and Android.