The Crow's Egg

Overview

The plight of India's poverty-stricken conveyed through a quest for pizza? Yes, you read that correctly. Tamil language film The Crow's Egg endeavours to journey through the harsh lives of two young brothers by sending them in search of a slice of a fast food staple, and aims to present a combination of social realism and upbeat fable. If it sounds like an awkward combination, that's because it is.

It's also clumsy in packaging weighty considerations within kid-focused shenanigans, unconvincing when it attempts to work farcical aspects into the mix, and falls on the wrong side of all things cute and enthusiastic as a result. The statements director M. Manikandan tries to make about the vast chasms between the haves and the have-nots, corporations and individuals, and the western and developing worlds are certainly sound, but they're hardly helped by his preference for slightness and sweetness over subtlety.

What The Crow's Egg does have, however, is ample amounts of spirit – which is to be expected when a movie charts a couple of pint-sized characters on a mission. Here, the children in question are known only as Big Crow's Egg and Little Crow's Egg (Ramesh and J. Vignesh). The reason for their untraditional names is simple: that’s what the Chennai slum-dwelling siblings usually eat.

As their main source of food illustrates more than their attitudes, life is tough for the twosome. Their mother (Iyshwarya Rajesh) works in a factory to amass enough money for their imprisoned father's legal fees, leaving the pair to spend their days scouring for fallen coal along the railway tracks that they can then swap for a handful of rupees. They dream of better things, including the meals served by the new eatery in their neighbourhood. Italian cuisine seems as exotic as it does appetising, and they desperately want a taste.

Following their efforts and spending time with their cheeky personalities is endearing enough, as are the many musical montages, even if they're peppered throughout quite loudly and repetitively. Alas, the seesawing into darker territory is much less convincing.

Of course, the overall disjointedness the movie suffers from could be said to mimic the excited minds of protagonists as they cycle through one adventure after another; however that might be a case of being too kind to a film that's clearly well-meaning, but just as clearly a bit too messy in bringing its intentions to fruition. Besides, the engaging duo of child actors at the centre of The Crow's Egg achieve that sense of exuberance all by themselves – which is why they're the feature's strongest element. Well that, and the relatable yearning for a piece of pizza.