A review intrigued me to go and see this new Tamil film that had just released without any fanfare, despite being a Fox Star release. I was apprehensive whether it would have English subtitles but the obviously non-Tamil crowd queuing up for it (including Kiran Rao), at a cinema hall in Andheri, removed that apprehension.
Kaaka Muttai (Crow’s Egg) is as much a children’s film as Life of Pi is a film for tigers. It is absurd that it has been marketed as that, thus reducing its audience potential immensely.
It is actually one of the most beautiful films ever made in India; feel-good to its core but acutely observant and trenchant about the world its characters inhabit.
Two little boys are at the centre of the story, who live in a Chennai slum and have various adventures which eventually settle on the obsession to try pizza for the first time. When they are prevented from entering the pizza store as they look too shabby to be worthy customers, the events that inadvertently unfold reflect the ridiculousness of the venal adult world.
There is zero sentimentality and absolutely no preachiness or self-consciousness (and no poverty-porn exotica for the festival circuit). Just a discernible joy of living, which is amazing, given where the film is set (the Chennai slums). The film is notable for its lightness of touch that is brilliantly constructed, through its pacing, imaginative use of music and sharp dialogue. Even when some moments seem like constructed set pieces, they fall easily within the larger theme, and thus do not stick out in any way. The performances are excellent through and through; the two boys the most notable amongst them.
It is a lesson in how to make a film that that can appeal to people of any age and any sensibility. That, actually, is perhaps the most remarkable thing about the film. There is a question I often ask myself (not even consciously usually) whether this is a film I would enjoy if it was from some other country in some other language. This was one of the rare times (with an Indian film) when I found myself answering in the affirmative - this is fresh in a universal way. It was evident from the diversity of people enjoying the film in the two screenings I went for – old and young, men and women. And yes, children as well; though the subtexts are really not for them to grasp, there’s enough here for them to enjoy too. There was spontaneous applause in the end both times, and more smiles than I have ever seen at the end of a film (the feel-good ending has a lot to do with that too).
The last time I felt a film was this universal was in 2001 – Lagaan – which was much more mainstream Bollywood and yet transcended sensibilities across the world. That was borne out somewhat by the response it had outside India, and at the Oscars.
Kaaka Muttai is even more universal and more friendly, format-wise and length-wise (wish the climax was a tad shorter though, just a tad). It is the most emphatic shoo-in ever as a choice to represent India at the Oscars. In a year that has also seen the brilliantly uncompromising Court, that is quite something.
Jaideep Varma has made four full-length feature films; three non-fiction (including the National Award-winning Leaving Home) and one fiction (Hulla).
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Meet the Kaaka Muttai Kids Everyone Is Talking About
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