In a battered, tiny house in the slums of Chennai live two juvenile brothers, Periya (Crow's Egg the Elder - J Vignesh) and Chinna (Crow's Egg the Younger - V Ramesh), with their mother and paternal grandmother. They're too young to understand their dire poverty means the women can't give them any luxuries, like the toys and even the television set they openly yearn for. But when Mum (Iyshwarya Rajesh) does manage to bring an old TV home, a Pandora's box is blown open. The brothers see a pizza commercial, and with its alluring images of this (to them) strange and exotic new food, it sucks them in like a vacuum cleaner does dust. Now, they embark on a quest to put a taste to these heavenly images.
M. Manikandan's The Crow's Egg is a splendid little charmer that serves up (sorry, I couldn't resist) so many layers and surprises. At first glance it seems like just a cutesy, innocuous family movie (like a watered-down Slumdog Millionaire), but as it takes you right down into the guts of Manikandan's Chennai, you get a very stark but sensitive snapshot of modern urban Indian life. This is also thanks to Vijaiathinathan's production design. It also becomes a very clearsighted but neutrally ambiguous statement about globalisation and culture clashes (pizza in itself is Italian after all, and now an American corporate giant). And despite its setting, The Crow's Egg can also remind even us Westerners of the otherworldly feeling we can get when we first try foreign food.
Additionally, Manikandan brings his authentic screenplay to life with steadiness and smart timing, the performances (from a mostly unprofessional cast) are all charismatic and funny, and G. V. Prakash Rumar provides a very fitting score. The Crow's Egg is well worth cracking open.
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