Here is the thing. With very few exceptions (ahem…The Usual Suspects), I hate explanatory voice-overs (VO) in films. More so if they come from cutesy dogs. I detest how a disembodied voice is used to underline the moral of the story in scenes. So as you’ve probably guessed by now, I wasn’t very keen on the recently released Dil Dhadakne Do, which suffers from voiceoveritis and a case of the ‘profounds’ the way I assume most of the Indian population now suffers from post-Maggi-lead-poisoning. My thumb rule is that if a film uses a VO to explain the inner workings of a character, it means that it’s trying too hard to be deep or at the very least, interesting. You know, a bit like that guy on Tinder who has a quote from Rumi in his description but only because he saw Imtiaz Ali’s Rockstar once.
Kaaka Muttai which released along with Zoya Akhtar’s aqua-mammoth is on the other hand, the real thing. It’s a profound film on the effects of globalisation on those living in poverty. But it’s not Terrence-Malick-profound. You will not be asked to make sense of seemingly random visuals of dinosaurs strung together by a genius. Director M. Manikandan pulls of an amazing feat by managing to be accessible without being predictable or dumb. It’s the kind of film you can literally take home to meet your mother. (Once it’s out on DVD.)
The story is simple. Two slum kids want to eat a pizza. Very badly. To buy one, they must make Rs. 300 on the sly. This is a bit of a task because right now they make Rs. 15 a day picking leftover coal from train tracks. They are also fond of stealing and devouring crow’s eggs. So much so that they’ve decided to call themselves Big Crow’s Egg and Little Crow’s Egg. They have a dog who thankfully remains mute throughout the film. The kids are cute, but without trying to be. Which is the best kind of cute. Dressed in dirty clothes and sporting the reddish brown hair that comes from being out in the sun and undernourished, senior and junior are authentically sprung from the loins of urban poverty. Manikandan, who also wrote and shot the film, follows the footsteps of Vittorio De Sica by casting kids who actually grew up in slums. The result is an authenticity that trained child actors would never be able to bring. Just imagining Darsheel Safry in one of the roles is enough to cause a shudder.
Vignesh and Ramesh who play the two boys in Kaaka Muttai, own their roles. They are both utterly irresistible and have street swag in dollops. To commemorate this, they even get their own slo-mo stride sequence. Swag aside, just watching Little Crow’s Egg breaks into a wide smile is worth the price of admission. A vein of humour runs through the film even as the characters live in the kind of poverty and circumstances that are hard to romanticise.
It’s the kind of abject squalor that has slowly disappeared from our screens and it’s worth thinking why. Probably because it would hurt our posh little brains to think about this stuff. Or because we would like to think it’s no longer the dominant truth of our society. Because what is Rs. 300 to us? 2 coffees? One drink? By the time interval came, I realised I had spent Rs. 600 to watch this film (popcorn and auto fare included). That was not a pleasant realisation at all.
I may be preaching (or ranting) but Kaaka Muttai does not, which is why it is so moving and effective. Watch it this week, while it’s still in theatres.
Lady Middlebrow 