Set in the blistering squalor of a Chennai slum, The Crow’s Egg blends harsh realism with fantasy as it tells the uplifting story of two young, impoverished brothers (Kakka Muttai and Chinna Kakka Muttai) who embark on an endeavour to raise enough money in order to be able to enter their local ‘up-market’ pizza parlour with the desire to taste this new-fangled dish called ‘pizza’. Realizing that one pizza costs more than their family’s monthly income, they begin to plot ways to earn more money – inadvertently beginning an adventure that will involve the entire city. The interesting title is a reference to the poor state of the street urchins, often going without food for days and surviving only by stealing crow’s eggs to eat.
The Crow’s Egg is a cleverly observed, articulate and excellently narrated Tamil film. The film applies a combination of realism and satire as a magnifying glass to explore the deeper moral issues of extreme poverty, exploitation and the strong power of family values that ultimately interweave into every aspect of the protagonists’ lives.
The Crow’s Egg – out on 20th November by Fox - will also be screened at the Leeds International Film Festival on 13th, 14th and 16th of November. The trailer is above.
