A slice of slum life - and of pizza in The Crow's Egg [Review]
It's certainly a more sheltered view of poverty than we're used to seeing in movies, but calling The Crow's Egg a jollier Slumdog Millionaire doesn't mean it's not a profound, hugely fun tale of two plucky boys chasing their dreams in a rapidly changing India.
V Ramesh is Little Crow's Egg and J Vignesh is Big Crow's Egg - so called because they like to snack on stolen eggs. A pizza takeaway opens near their Chennai slum, and the two brothers do everything they can to taste the Italian treat themselves.
This is a tall order when one pizza costs 300 rupees (HK$35) and the boys' job collecting coal from the train tracks earns just 10 rupees per day. Following a nasty incident that makes its way onto social media, the whole neighbourhood is soon trying to help the Eggs get a slice.
Director M. Manikandan's debut film touches on the darker issues of Indian society - the poverty gap, social prejudice, cultural pressures, but tries not to let the dark honesty steal any of the magnetic movie's energy.
Through the Eggs' first-rate performances, we see slum life through the eyes of children without turning them into objects of pity. The film's beauty is in the vivid characters the brothers meet, and it's impossible not to cheer at their everyday triumphs.