THE CROW'S EGG/ KAAKKAA MUTTAI

India, 2014, 91 minutes, Colour.
Directed by M. Manikandan.

The Crows Egg is a Tamil film from the city of Chennai (formerly Madras). Films from the industries on India’s west coast, from Kolkotta and Chennai, tend to be dramas and comedies without the colourful romantic song and dance of Bollywood, from Mumbai and the east coast.

Many were surprised when Slumdog Millionaire won the Oscar for Best Film in 2008. Before and since there have been many slumdog films and this is one of them, something like Slumdog Pizza. Blog reports from India indicate that the Indian population really warms to this film.

The focus of the story is a family in the slums, father is in jail, mother works and tries to raise money to pay a lawyer to help get her husband out of jail (without any results). Her mother-in-law lives at home, sitting and getting older, giving advice to the two young boys who have to go out to collect coal, especially that falling from the trains as they pass, to get money for the family rather than go to school. There are quite a number of children with similar lives in these slums.

The boys, generally smiling, even when the younger one has problems, as in the opening of the film, with wetting his bed mat. The go out to play, give rice to the local crows and climb up to the nest so that they can drink the yolk from the crows’ eggs. They nickname themselves as Crow’s Egg.

Their lives are fairly routine, but, on the whole, they seem to enjoy them, not having had the opportunity to live better in any way. Until their playground is taken over, a building is put up and it turns out to be a Pizza Parlour. They have no idea what pizza is but they are attracted by the multi-coloured flyer, even persuading their grandmother to try to reproduce it.

They spend a lot of the film collecting the coal, helped by a friend who guides them to a government store and they gradually build up the money, only to be rejected at the Pizza Spot for being dirty urchins. Their next goal is to buy clothes so that they can be respectable as they try to get pizza.

In case this is too schmaltzy (which, in many ways, it is), there is a subplot about financial wheeler dealings to buy property, to put up buildings, to line the pockets of officials…

It comes to a head when the manager of the Pizza Spot actually punches the older boy – and it has been filmed on a mobile phone, leading to TV exposition, TV panels, discussions about the wealthy and the poor, politicians getting in on the act, locals trying to extort money from the Pizza boss, and, without spoiling the ending, no surprise when they get a free pizza (and then turn up their noses at it).

A family film, more attuned to family audiences and younger audiences than Slumdog Millionaire, audiences identifying with the boys who, for most of the film, seem to have as their goal, money, money, money – but, of course, they discover their generosity at the end.

1. Audience response to films from India? A Tamil film? From the city of Chennai?

2. The Chennai settings, the slum areas, passageways, homes, ramshackle, yet centres for the family, the extended family, the making of meals, washing, sleeping arrangements, the local authorities making television sets available – and the locals enjoying the television programmes?

3. The popularity of Slumdog Millionaire? This film in the tradition? The boys in the slums, the details of their lives, no school, collecting coal to get money, the goal of eating pizza?

4. Colour photography, the details of the city, homes, settlements, open spaces for play, the new buildings? The trains passing by? The coal store? The musical score?

5. The family situation, the father in jail, the visits by his wife, his attitude and concern, her concern, worried about his health and condition, working hard, giving the money to the lawyer, the links with the local politicians and her visit, no results? The mother-in-law, sitting at home, saying she was just eating and sleeping, her advice to the two boys, making the pizza and their not liking it? The two boys, their ages, the boy wetting his bed mat, going out, playing, feeding the crows the rice, finding the eggs, one each in one for the crows? Drinking the eggs? Naming themselves Crow’s Egg? Collecting the coal, selling it? Their meeting with Fruit Juice, chatting, his telling them where the coal was, their collecting so much, making the money, going back to find him, his being fired, finding him at the end? The relationship with the other boys and girls? The issue of mobile phones, with poles hitting the passengers passing on the trains and collecting the phones? The local authorities giving away television sets?

6. The businessmen, the playground, fencing it off, the deals with the politicians, the boss, his associates and their kowtowing to him, his schoolfriend always laughing and his rebuking him? The building, the pizza parlour, the opening, the superstar coming to eat, the cameras, everybody cheering including the children? Seeing him eat? The colourful flyers, the high prices? The boys in their determination to eat pizza, their mother’s refusal, the grandmother’s attempts? The pizza delivery boy and their helping him and looking and smelling the pizza?

7. The meeting with the rich boy, talking with him, his offering them some pizza and their refusal, going to the parlour, being rejected as urchins, the need for better clothes, advice from the rich boy, going on the bus, to the city, meeting the rich boys who wanted to eat something special and their father refusing, the brothers buying their clothes?

8. Going to the pizza parlour, the manager and the police security, the refusal of the manager, the manager hitting the boy – and its being filmed?

9. The man who brought the coal, his associate, going to the owner, the deal with the money, low expectations for money, the offering of 100,000 rupees, his not telling his associate who sold it to the TV, the sequences appearing on TV, the panels, the discussions, the repetitions, the boy’s mother finally seeing it?

10. The negotiations, the local politician and his intervention? The search for the boys, their running away, with Fruit Juice? Their being brought back?

11. The boys at the parlour, the media, their being welcome as celebrities, the owner greeting them, free pizza – and then not liking the taste!

12. A glimpse of an Indian city, families, the slums, hopes and aspirations?