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Monday, April 21, 2025
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TAMIL KAAKA MUTTAI
EDITOR'S PICK
'Kaaka
Muttai' - A film that will make you crow with joy (IANS Rating )
Rating:
*****
M. Manikandan's debut feature 'Kaaka Muttai' (Crow's Egg) is not a children's
film. It's a film for adults and centres around children oblivious to the
growing social divide, capitalism and elitism. It's also a film you can take
your children to without a doubt and be assured that they will enjoy.
The film is about the adventures of two street urchins for their first bite of
pizza. Just like you can find layers of ingredients in a pizza, 'Kaaka Muttai'
too is filled with layers aimed at different sections of the audience.
One of the layers is about urban poverty. The story is set in a slum in Chennai,
a metropolitan city, and we follow a pair of mischievous young brothers who
support their family by collecting coal by the railway tracks and selling it in
the black market. With their father in prison, their mother becomes the sole
earning member and with the pittance she earns she desperately tries to bail her
husband out with the help of crooked lawyers. The boys, who are mostly looked
after by their grandmother, steal crows eggs and eat them for nutrition as they
can't afford eggs from poultry.
The boys, on their way to work, befriend a rich child whom they meet every day.
An iron fencing separates them and standing on either side of it, they talk
about elusive pizza, watches, clothes and a pug worth Rs.25,000.
A scene where the brothers try to sell their stray dog is a scream. Manikandan
uses these scenes to beautifully highlight the pathos of the have-nots and
subtly shifts focus on the social divide.
At different levels, 'Kaaka Muttai' is a different film. When the children are
denied entry into a pizza outlet, it becomes an allegory on the large class
differences. It also enters the satirical territory and mocks at politicians,
police, media and capitalists, and Manikandan does that gloriously without
getting pretentiously didactic.
He uses humour as a topping on these layers to keep the film mostly light
hearted, though it deals with a very serious subject. The scene where the
brothers mimic a movie scene and one where they strike a deal with two rich
children for their new clothes, is proof to Manikandan's ability as a commercial
filmmaker.
The two children -- Ramesh and Vignesh -- don't have names in the film. They're
called big crow's egg and little crow's egg. It's probably Manikandan's way of
telling us that it doesn't matter if two children from a slum don't have names
because nobody cares.
In the movie, nobody cares when the boys wander the streets of Chennai doing odd
jobs -- scrubbing posters off the walls, selling large blocks of coal and
transporting sozzled men from roadside bars to their homes -- just so that they
can have Rs.300 for a slice of pizza.
You can't find actors as natural as these boys. Had Manikandan cast child actors
instead of these boys, who were handpicked from real slums, I doubt if he
could've achieved even fifty percent of what he manages to deliver with their
contribution, which is phenomenal.
Aishwarya plays the mother of the boys and she will leave you awe-struck. The
ease with which she gets into the skin of the character is exceptional and
agreeing to play something so contrary to what she has done so far in her career
needs guts.
Manikandan also doubled up as the film's cinematographer and his work in this
role is even more rewarding. G.V. Prakash Kumar's soundtrack is soothing and is
easily his best work after last year's 'Saivam'.
'Kaaka Muttai' is a little gem that's highly recommended and deserves to be
celebrated. Tamil cinema should be proud of it and Dhanush and filmmaker
Vetrimaaran should proudly raise their collars for co-producing it.
Filmmaker Vetrimaaran says he will take his own sweet time to complete the 'Vada Chennai' trilogy, which stars Dhanush in the lead, as he will get 'bored' if he chooses to complete three parts in succession. Read More
'Kaaka Muttai' a box office winnerM. Manikandan-directed National Award winning Tamil drama "Kaaka Muttai", about the adventures of two street urchins for their first bite of pizza, has turned out to be a sleeper hit by setting the cash registers ringing.Read More
