Kaaka Muttai

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 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 young boys 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 brothers go to the railway tracks each morning to collect the charcoal that falls off goods trains. They sell the charcoal at a scrap metal shop and are paid for their trouble. They usually hand the money over to their mother, who is saving up to pay their lawyer to get her husband out of jail. But once the boys become aware of the cost of a pizza, they begin saving the money for themselves instead, lying to their mother that they have not collected any charcoal since they were out playing. The boys succeed in saving the ₹ 300 required to buy a pizza but are shooed away by the watchman of the pizza shop since they are badly dressed, which reflects the fact that they are local slum-dwellers. The boys narrate this story to their friend Pazharasam who works as a lineman with the Railways. He tells them that people place a lot of importance on clothes and advises them to save up and purchase new dresses before approaching the pizza outlet again.

The boys go on to work again to save money for buying new clothes at 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 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 the older brother. This is caught on video by the other slum kids who laugh at the brothers' 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 when they remember insulting their grandmother some time before.

When two men in the slum happen to watch the video of the boy 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 slum children. He offers one of the men a hundred thousand rupees for not making the video public. The man agrees, but his associate releases it to the media hoping to make some money (unaware of the huge sum being offered). This stirs up tension amongst the pizzeria's owners who finally decide to publicly apologise to the slum kids. The boys are welcomed to the pizza spot in 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.

Manikandan said that few scenes of the film had inspired from Not One Less, City of God and Slumdog Millionaire, based on the visual themes and setting in slums.[13] He had pointed out a scene where the boys' mother (Aishwarya Rajesh) gives an interview to a news channel. But, however, as a similar scene was present in Not One Less, he had to delete that scene.[13] The Times of India-based critic M. Suganth said that Manikandan's earnestness in the filmmaking invites comparison with Iranian films like Children of Heaven (1997).[30]

Writing for American magazine The Hollywood Reporter, Jordan Mintzer called Kaaka Muttai "an allegory for the vast class differences that persist in India, revealing how people try to profit off a system that leaves little room for advancement."[31] Another reviewer from the Indo-Asian News Service called that "the film is filled with layers aimed at different sections of the audience, one of them being urban poverty, the other being discrimination based on class system", but praised director for using humour as a theme to keep the film mostly light hearted, though it deals with a very serious subject.[32] Arpita Bose, writing an article for The Times of India, said that the "theme is not culture-specific but contemporary and universal. At its core, the film is about the adventures of two slum boys in a world that is taking on a swanky avatar backed by moneyed entrepreneurs, shrewd politicians and loafing opportunists."[29] Writing for the Film Companion website, Harsh B. H. Said that the film follows "the themes of class-divide and the perils of consumerism, with just the right amount of irony, without coming off as preachy".[33] In addition to the themes of class-based discrimination, the film was noted for media sensationalism listed by Surendhar M. K. of Firstpost, in his article about 'How media sensationalism drives diverse narratives in Tamil cinema'.[34]

The film's four-song soundtrack and score was composed by G. V. Prakash Kumar. Kumar earlier worked with Manikandan in the short film Wind, and was brought on board for the project, due to his regular collaborations with Vetrimaaran, the film's producer. Na. Muthukumar penned down the lyrics for the songs in the film. The film's audio was released on 4 May 2015 at Suryan FM Radio Station and Prasad Labs in Chennai.[35] Except for the film's composer, the entire cast and crew, including the producers Dhanush and Vetrimaaran attended the launch event and released the songs. Think Music marketed the soundtrack album.[35]

Behindwoods rated the album three out of five, stating the album as "an impressive album from G. V. Prakash which speaks of innocence, hope and good days ahead in musical terms."[36] Indiaglitz rated the album 3.25 out of five and said "one of Prakash's best works till date"[37] Akilan Nagarajan of Moviecrow wrote the album as "simple, yet convincing tracks from Prakash" and gave three stars out of five.[38] Karthik Srinivasan of Milliblog called the album as "GVP's best in a long time!"[39] while Vipin Nair of Music Aloud rated the album 8 stars (out of 10), saying that the tracks are "light and likeable".[40]

The film was selected to be screened at the 39th Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF),[41][42] which was the first film by a debut Tamil director to have its world premiere at Toronto since the festival's inception in 1976.[43] It had its world premiere under the international title The Crows Egg on 5 September 2014,[44] and received standing ovation from the audience.[45] In addition, the film was furthermore screened at the Rome Film Festival held during October 2014,[46][47] and at the Dubai International Film Festival during late-December 2014.[48] The film was further screened at the Brisbane Asia Pacific Film Festival,[49] the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles on 8 April 2015 (during the inaugural day of the ceremony),[50][51] and also at the Gold Coast Film Festival.[52]

The film's worldwide theatrical rights acquisition was brought by the corporate multi-media production house, Fox Star Studios,[53] in order to ensure a wide reach towards the audience.[42] Kaaka Muttai's theatrical trailer was screened during the inaugural day premiere at IFFLA in Los Angeles, during April 2015, and was positively received by audience.[54] Since it is a children's film, the producers planned to release on the occasion of summer holidays, to attract more family audience.[11] In mid-May 2015, the makers announced that the film will be released on 5 June 2015.[55] In addition to the theatrical release in India, the film was also screened at overseas countries,[56] including United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Singapore and Sri Lanka.[57][28] The film was theatrically released in Karnataka on 19 June 2015,[58] where the Karnataka Government granted tax-free in the state,[58][59] becoming the first non-Kannada film to receive tax-exemption in Karnataka.[60][61] It was theatrically released on Kerala on 26 June 2015.[62]

The presenters of the film, Dhanush and Vetrimaaran, along with the distributor Fox Star Studios, associated with charitable non-government organization called Bhumi for the well-being of the actors.[63] The company CEO, Vijay Singh, released a statement saying "The Chennai-based NGO will be entrusted with a substantial sum of money towards the food, education and additional needs of the two child actors. Bhumi will be entrusted with the responsibility of handling the money for the monthly expenses as well as monitoring the progress of the kids till they turn 21. At 21, the entire sum of money will be handed over to the kids for their future needs".[64] The satellite rights of the film were sold to Star Vijay,[65] and was premiered during the occasion of Independence Day (15 August 2015).[66] The film was also released through the OTT-service Hotstar.[67]

Filmmaker Samit Kakkad watched the film at a festival in Mumbai and expressed his interest in adapting the film into Marathi language. Later he worked on that film, which was titled Half Ticket[125] and altered the script in a minor way to include certain nuances of the Marathi language, by changed the setting to Mumbai instead of Chennai.[126] G. V. Prakash Kumar retained the tracks of the original counterpart for this film, also making his Marathi debut.[127] The film produced by Video Palace, alongside Fox Star Studios, which distributed the original film, released on 22 July 2016.[128] The title was used in the latest Kannada movie Kaage Moote however the story appears to be inspired from a number of movies.

• Kaaka Muttai at IMDb
• Kaaka Muttai at Rotten Tomatoes