Tamilgun Pizza 2

[Ceasar Doyle]

KaakaMuttai (released internationally as The Crow's Egg)[1] is a 2015 Indian Tamil-language comedy drama film written, directed and filmed by M. Manikandan, in his directorial debut. Jointly produced by Dhanush's Wunderbar Films, Vetrimaaran's Grass Root Film Company and distributed by Fox Star Studios, it stars newcomers Vignesh and Ramesh, alongside Aishwarya Rajesh, Ramesh Thilak, Yogi Babu in supporting roles and Silambarasan in a cameo appearance. The film's storyline revolves around two slum children of Chennai, whose desire is to taste a pizza.

Vetrimaaran approached Manikandan in a film festival, after he saw one of his short films being screened. When asked by Vetrimaaran to develop a script, Manikandan wrote a storyline based on slum children and also inspired incidents from his life. Then the team cast real children living in the slum, in order to have a realistic approach. Following an official announcement in mid-January 2013, the film began production in that May. It was shot in real slums and streets across Chennai within 61 working days. The film explores the themes of class-based discrimination, consumerism and media sensationalism. The film's soundtrack and score is composed by G. V. Prakash Kumar and editing was done by Kishore Te.

The film had its world premiere on 5 September 2014 at the 39th Toronto International Film Festival, and was further screened at many other film festival circuits before its worldwide theatrical release on 5 June 2015. It opened to widespread critical acclaim praising the performances of the cast members, storyline, screenplay, direction and other major technical aspects. In addition to the critical and audience response, the film further achieved commercial success at the box-office.[3] Kaaka Muttai was occasionally listed at the "Best Tamil Films of 2015". It was further considered one of the "25 Greatest Tamil Films of the Decade" by Film Companion;[4] the same website ranked the actors Vignesh and Ramesh's and Aishwarya Rajesh's performance as two of the "100 Greatest Performances of the Decade".[5] The film is remade in Marathi as Half Ticket (2016).

In a tiny concrete-and-tin Chennai home in the slums live two young brothers with their mother and grandmother. With the boys' father in prison for unknown reasons and with an ageing mother-in-law, the mother does her best to keep the kitchen fires burning. The brothers spend their time playing games and stealing and devouring eggs from the crows' nests. Their love for these eggs leads them to start calling themselves 'Periya Kaaka Muttai' (Big Crow Egg) and 'Chinna Kaaka Muttai' (Small Crow Egg).

The brothers constantly beg their mother and grandmother for toys they cannot afford and later for a television. They don't yet understand that the two women can't give them everything they want. When their mother and grandmother finally do bring home a television, a gift from the government to ration card holders who live below the poverty line, it's like the opening of a portal. The boys see a pizza commercial on TV whose steaming, slow-motion images make the unfamiliar food look like manna from heaven. Meanwhile, a brand new pizzeria comes up in the neighbourhood, and actor Silambarasan alias Simbu comes to its opening. Remembering the looks of enjoyment on Simbu's face when he tasted a pizza at the pizzeria, the boys thereafter think of nothing else but getting their first taste of a pizza.

The boys go on to work again to save money for buying new clothes at the Chennai Citi Centre. In the meantime, they show their grandmother the pamphlet from the pizza shop. She tries to make them a home-cooked pizza using dosa batter as the base, but the boys deride her attempts and insult her. After finally saving up enough money for new dresses, when the boys see Citi Centre, they realise that it is another big mall which would definitely not allow them inside. But they somehow manage to acquire a newly bought pair of clothes from a couple of rich children by buying them panipuri from a street vendor, much against the wishes of the rich boys' father, who had denied them the treat as he considered it unhygienic.

The happy brothers return to the pizza shop in their new dresses. Another group of slum boys who are envious and sceptical about the brothers' story about going to eat pizza follow them to take a video of what transpires with the brothers at the pizza shop. The brothers are once again confronted by the watchman and he now forces them to go home right away, but the boys protest by saying that they have money and are wearing new clothes. This argument attracts the attention of the pizzeria supervisor, who comes out and slaps Periya. This is caught on video by the other slum kids, who laugh at the brother's humiliation. The sad and disappointed brothers return to their slum, only to be further overwhelmed by the miserable sight of their dead grandmother. The brothers feel guilty and responsible when they remember insulting their grandmother some time ago.

When two men in the slum Naina and his friend happen to watch the video of Periya being slapped, they try to make money by threatening the owner of the pizza shop to release the video to the media. The owner realises he could be imprisoned and his pizzeria sealed by the government due to his supervisor's act of discrimination and violence against the children. He offers Naina, one hundred thousand rupees for not making the video public. He agrees, but his friend releases it to the media hoping to make some money (unaware of the huge sum being offered). This stirs up tension among the pizzeria's owners, who finally decide to publicly apologise to the brothers. The boys are welcomed to the pizza spot on a red carpet reminiscent of Simbu being welcomed in the opening ceremony of the pizzeria. The owner also promises them free pizzas for life. Even as the brothers begin to finally enjoy their first pizza, they tell each other that the dosa-pizza which their grandmother had earlier made for them had tasted much better.

I thought a children's movie will be a good idea to introduce myself as a director. Children's films generally have a safety net. If you do things correctly and make the kids act well, the film will turn out well. And, screenplays that are based on desires and goals will have a tighter structure because they are plot-driven. With kids the normal motivational factors like money and fame don't work as they do with adults.

M. Manikandan, a former wedding photographer, had directed a short film named Wind in late 2010, primarily for his cinematography in the film.[13] It was critically raved by cinephiles and other celebrities, and also got the attention of director Vetrimaaran, when the film was screened at a film festival, where he was a jury member.[12] Vetrimaaran personally approached Manikandan, to ask about his other future film projects, where Manikandan narrated a script about slum children and its essence, impressed and decided to produce the film under his Grass Root Film Company banner.[14] He later called Manikandan to meet him and Dhanush in Delhi to progress about the narration of the script and storyline, but Dhanush said that he liked the script and also joined the film as a co-producer under the Wunderbar Films banner.[12] Vetrimaaran said that the storyline has an artistic approach and had similarities to Slumdog Millionaire (2008).[14]

The script's basic plot line is inspired from his life, where his son often have craved for pizza, but he could have a little money to buy it, one day. Then he inspired that "what if someone who couldn't afford a pizza wished to have one",[15] which he kept as a basic idea pitching the story line.[14] To develop the conflict stronger, he characterised the lead artists as slum children and also realised that the kids get attracted to things only because of catchy advertisements.[14] Initially, he had planned to produce the film on his own, through crowdfunding, where he suggested his friends to send money for the production of the project, before Vetrimaaran agreed to produce the film.[14] On the occasion of Republic Day (26 January 2013),[16] both Dhanush and Vetrimaaran announced the project officially under the title Kaaka Muttai.[17][18]

For a children's film, Manikandan eventually planned to cast professional children from the film, but as he was not convinced with their performances, he made a visit to real slums across Mylapore to pick slum children, who do not have an acting experience. In the process, he picked J. Vignesh and Ramesh, hailing from the fishermen community, both under 15. Manikandan also trained the kids and gave a lot of rehearsals before the shoot. He eventually said that, "During shooting both of them would fight with each other often. But on screen they will look like siblings."[12] He added that the children will play the lead protagonists and there are no typical male or female leads.[19] Aishwarya Rajesh was roped to play the mother of the siblings. She was very hesitant at first to play a mother role at such an early stage in her career, but, after seeking advice from her Pannaiyarum Padminiyum co-star Vijay Sethupathi, she decided to be part of the film. Producer Vetrimaaran was initially sceptical to cast Aishwarya Rajesh and thought it would be more apt to cast an actual mother from the slums.[20] Yogi Babu and Ramesh Thilak appear in supporting roles.[21] While Manikandan handled the cinematography, Kishore Te., who was a regular in Vetrimaaran's projects, was assigned as the film editor, which became one of the last works of the editor before his death in March 2013.[22][23]

The principal photography began during late-May 2013, where the entire film will be completed within a single stretch of 61 days.[24] In order to have a realistic approach, the makers shot the film entirely in real slums and streets of Chennai.[12] In August 2013, Silambarasan accepted to make a cameo appearance in the film.[25][26] He joined the team in September 2013 to film scenes alongside Babu Antony who plays a landlord.[27][28] Manikandan said that, it was difficult to capture the real attitude of kids and bring it to the screen. Further, he faced challenges such as to get a similar expression in the next shot, and to avoid night shoots with kids. But he was aware of the challenges and worked on the film.[12][29] The entire shooting of the film was wrapped up within March 2014.[14]

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