DAMMY

DAMMY

Daddy-as-Mommy
Suman Basodia is a young tribal man living in rural Madhya
Pradesh. Naive and innocent, he is married to the love of his life, a
tribal girl who shares his own name -- Suman. Suman loses his
fully-pregnant wife to an accident. The lady dies; the baby is alive.
Suman is shattered beyond measure. Suman comes back to his
tribal village with the infant, Thippu, but finds it extremely difficult to
attend to the needs of the little one, who obviously misses a
mother’s care.
The hapless but caring father tries everything he can to fill the
absence of the mother but fails. His love for the lost wife and the
living child forces him to do seemingly bizarre or weird solutions to
the baby’s problems. For one, he shaves off his chest hair so that
the baby can sleep on him comfortably as she does on a mother’s
bosom.
Of course, these absurd don’t work as desired. Finally, Suman
decides to the impossible; he approaches a local hospital for sex-
change surgery. The Daddy wants to be a Mommy. But when he
approaches a hospital with the strange request, he gets into the
trap of two hospital employees who mock his naive wish and cheat
him out of his precious money and assets.
In sum, Dammy is the story of a poor, hapless tribal man who’s
being mocked by a dirty system that does not understand the
innocence in his desire. This story is the microcosm of a world
vulnerable people like Suman encounter every day.

  • RUKSHANA TABASSUM
    Director
    Mission Sunday, Bubbles and Stars, The Cake Story, Apples and Oranges, Vaishnava – Being Humane, Begum
  • Jinoy Jose P
    Writer
    Burning
  • Sarvamangala
    Producer
    Burning
  • Ajayya Kumar
    Producer
    Burning
  • Priya M Nair
    Producer
  • Vikram Kochhar
    Key Cast
    "Suman"
    Raktanchal (2020), Sacred Games (2018) and Kesari (2019)
  • Bramha Mishra
    Key Cast
    "Male Nurse"
  • Priti Jha Tiwari
    Key Cast
    "Female Nurse"
  • Amaaya Choubey
    Key Cast
    "Baby Girl"
  • Jinoy Jose P
    Story and Screenplay
    Burning
  • Vandita Jain
    Cinematographer
  • Bigyna Bhushan Dahal
    Sound Designer
  • Mahendra Singh Lodhi
    Editor
  • Sagar Desai
    Music
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Runtime:
    27 minutes 29 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    August 13, 2020
  • Production Budget:
    27,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    India
  • Country of Filming:
    India
  • Shooting Format:
    4k UHD ( 8 bit)
  • Aspect Ratio:
    1:2.35
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
Director Biography - RUKSHANA TABASSUM

Rukshana studied filmmaking at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII). She received hands-on training in various aspects/departments of filmmaking while assisting reputed filmmakers like Mani Kaul and Kumar Shahani, to working as scriptwriter at A Belly Full of Dreams Entertainment Private Limited to creating and producing content at Viacom Motion Pictures and Balaji Motion Pictures before starting out on her own in 2016 as a freelance writer-director.
Rukshana’s film “The Cake Story” produced by the Children’s Film Society of India (CFSI) won the National Award - Jury’s Special Mention in the short fiction non – feature category in 2018.Her films Apples and Oranges and Vaishnava – Being Humane have been part of some major film festivals across the globe in 2019- 2020 and has been winning many awards. Two of her short films Dammy and Begum are due for release in 2020.
Rukshana has also directed TVCs and digital brands for Reliance Unlimit, Godrej Chotu kool, Kent RO Systems, Odisha Tourism and Asian Paints. Her forte is shooting food films and she has shot over 80 food films for brand FoodLooking so far.
Currently she is working on her first feature length documentary called ‘The Next Social 3.0’ produced by Anand Mahindra which is in post-production. This film is about a bunch of young Indian techies who have developed a homegrown social media app based on block chain technology.
Besides films her passion lies in painting murals which she does professionally and in classical dance.

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Director Statement

Every human being is an embodiment of masculine and feminine energies. The concept of Prakriti (feminine) and Purusha (Masculine) goes well beyond gender and sex when it comes to Indian philosophy. But when it comes to practice the Indian society is far behind. The gender roles and the way each gender is expected to behave is too defined leaving very little room for people to explore their feminine and masculine sides. Men are often expected to be rough and tough while women are supposed to be gentle and soft and the awareness and acceptance for the third gender is almost negligent.
Dammy is set in a world where a tribal man Suman becomes aware of his feminine side while looking after his infant daughter after his wife’s sudden death. For the love of his child he leaves aside all his social conditioning of how a man should behave and tries to be the perfect mother to his daughter to the best of his ability. He tends to the baby like a mother but when the baby refuses to drink milk from the bottle he realizes his physical limitations as a man. He shaves off his chest and breast feeds her to help the baby cope up with the loss of a mother. But when nothing works and the baby still refuses to drink milk he decides to go for a sex change operation without knowing much about it.
The film also reveals how Suman’s desire to be mother is mocked at by the system which is nothing but a reflection of a society that often finds it difficult to accept ideologies/thoughts that doesn’t come within the purview of what is perceived as ‘normal’. The film also dwells on how traits like innocence and naivety are looked as traits of the weaker human as those who are in power decide to take advantage of the situation and plant seeds to rob him.
Dammy gently tries to reflect on questions of morality, acceptance social conditioning love and power through the tale of Suman and his quest to be the perfect mother to his daughter.