Kaaka Muttai () is a 2015 Indian Tamil-language comedy drama film written, directed and filmed by M. Manikandan, in his directorial debut. Jointly produced by Dhanush's Wunderbar Films, Vetrimaaran's Grass Root Film Company and distributed by Fox Star Studios, it stars newcomers J. Vignesh and V. Ramesh in the title roles, alongside Aishwarya Rajesh, Ramesh Thilak, Yogi Babu in supporting roles and Silambarasan in a cameo appearance. The film's storyline revolves around two slum children in Chennai, whose desire is to taste a pizza at local restaurant, Pizza Spot.
Vetrimaaran approached Manikandan in a film festival, after he saw one of his short films being screened. When asked by Vetrimaaran to develop a script, Manikandan wrote a storyline based on slum children and also inspired incidents from his life. Then the team cast real children living in the slum, in order to have a realistic approach. Following an official announcement in mid-January 2013, the film began production in that May 2013. It was shot in real slums and streets across Chennai within 61 working days. The film explores the themes of class-based discrimination, consumerism and media sensationalism. The film's soundtrack and score is composed by G. V. Prakash Kumar and editing was done by Kishore Te.
The film had its world premiere on 5 September 2014 as The Crow's Egg at the 39th Toronto International Film Festival, and was further screened at many other film festival circuits before its worldwide theatrical release on 5 June 2015 as Kaaka Muttai. It opened to widespread critical acclaim praising the performances of the cast members, storyline, screenplay, direction and other major technical aspects. In addition to the critical and audience response, the film further achieved commercial success at the box-office. Kaaka Muttai was occasionally listed at the "Best Tamil Films of 2015". It was further considered one of the "25 Greatest Tamil Films of the Decade" by Film Companion; the same website ranked the actors Vignesh and Ramesh's and Aishwarya Rajesh's performance as two of the "100 Greatest Performances of the Decade". The film was remade in Marathi as Half Ticket (2016).
Kaaka Muttai won the National Award for Best Children's Film and Best Child Artist, for the actors Ramesh and Vignesh, at the 62nd National Film Awards. It was the strong contender to be shortlisted for the Indian submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film but lost to the Marathi-language film Court (2015). At the 63rd Filmfare Awards South, the film won the Filmfare Award for Best Film, out of its four nominations in the Tamil branch. M. Manikandan received an award for Best Debut Director at the 5th South Indian International Movie Awards, where it was nominated in other four categories. The film also won six Tamil Nadu State Film Awards, six Ananda Vikatan Cinema Awards, two Norway Tamil Film Festival Awards and an Edison Awards. In July 2017, the Tamil Nadu government announced State Film Awards for films released during the 2009–2014 period in which Kaaka Muttai won three awards: Best Actress (Aishwarya), Best Child Artist (Vignesh and Ramesh) and a Special Prize for Best Film.
Plot In a tiny concrete-and-tin Chennai home in the slums live two young brothers with their mother and their grandmother. Their father is in the 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 the crows' nests. Their love for these eggs leads them to start calling themselves Periya Kaaka Muttai and Chinna Kaaka Muttai.
Periya Kaaka Muttai and Chinna Kaaka Muttai constantly beg their mother and their grandmother for toys they cannot afford and later, for a television. The two women finally bring a television to their home, a gift from Government of Tamil Nadu to Ration Card Holders who live below Poverty Line. Periya Kaaka Muttai and Chinna Kaaka Muttai see a pizza commercial that strikes them. Meanwhile, a brand new pizza shop named Pizza Spot comes up in the neighbourhood, Actor Silambarasan inaugurates the place. Remembering the looks of enjoyment on Silambarasan's face when he tasted pizza there, Periya Kaaka Muttai and Chinna Kaaka Muttai thereafter think of nothing else but getting their first taste of those pizzas.
Periya Kaaka Muttai and Chinna Kaaka Muttai go to the railway tracks each morning to collect the charcoal that falls from goods trains. They sell the charcoal at a scrap metal shop. They usually hand the money over to their mother, who is saving up to pay their lawyer to get her husband out of prison. But once Periya Kaaka Muttai and Chinna Kaaka Muttai 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. Periya Kaaka Muttai and Chinna Kaaka Muttai succeed in saving ₹ 300 required to buy a pizza but they are sent away by the Pizza Spot's watchman since they are badly dressed their clothes, 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. Pazharasam tells them that people place a lot of importance on clothes and he advises them to save up and purchase new clothes before approaching Pizza Spot again.
Periya Kaaka Muttai and Chinna Kaaka Muttai go to the work again to save money for buying new clothes at the Chennai Citi Centre. In the meantime, Periya Kaaka Muttai and Chinna Kaaka Muttai show their grandmother the pamphlet from Pizza Spot. Their grandmother tries to make them a home-cooked pizza using Dosa batter, but they fail her attempts and they insult her. After finally saving up enough money for new clothes, when Periya Kaaka Muttai and Chinna Kaaka Muttai see Chennai 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.
Periya Kaaka Muttai and Chinna Kaaka Muttai felt happy and they return to Pizza Spot in their new clothes. Another group of slum boys who are envious and sceptical about the Periya Kaaka Muttai's and Chinna Kaaka Muttai's story about going to eat pizza them to take a video of what transpires with Periya Kaaka Muttai and Chinna Kaaka Muttai at Pizza Spot. Periya Kaaka Muttai and Chinna Kaaka Muttai are once again confronted by the pizza spot's watchman and he now forces them to go home right away, but they protest by saying that they have money and they are wearing new clothes. This argument attracts the attention of the pizza spot's Supervisor, who comes out and slaps Periya Kaaka Muttai. This is caught on video by the other slum boys, who laugh at their humiliation. Periya Kaaka Muttai and Chinna Kaaka Muttai felt sad and disappointed and they return to their slum, only to be further overwhelmed by the miserable sight of their dead grandmother. Periya Kaaka Muttai and Chinna Kaaka Muttai feel guilty and responsible when they remember that they were insulting their grandmother some time ago.
In the slum, Naina and his friend were watching the video of Periya Kaaka Muttai being slapped by the Pizza Spot's supervisor, they try to make money by threatening the Pizza Spot's owner to release the video to the media. The Pizza Spot's owner realises he could be imprisoned and Pizza Spot sealed by the Government due to the filmed act of discrimination and violence against the children. He offers Naina one hundred thousand rupees for not making the video public. He agrees, but his friend releases it to the media hoping to make some money, unaware of the huge sum being offered. This stirs up tension among the Pizza Spot's owner, who finally decide to publicly apologise Periya Kaaka Muttai and Chinna Kaaka Muttai. Periya Kaaka Muttai and Chinna Kaaka Muttai are welcomed to the pizza spot on a red carpet reminiscent of actor Silambarasan being welcomed in the inauguration ceremony. The Pizza Spot's owner also promises them free pizzas for life. Even as Periya Kaaka Muttai and Chinna Kaaka Muttai begin to finally enjoy their first pizza, they tell each other that the home-cooked Pizza which their grandmother had earlier made for them using Dosa batter had tasted much better.
Cast
J. Vignesh as Periya Kaaka Muttai V. Ramesh as Chinna Kaaka Muttai Aishwarya Rajesh as Periya Kaaka Muttai's and Chinna Kaaka Muttai's mother Nivas Adithan as Periya Kaaka Muttai's and Chinna Kaaka Muttai's father Shanthi Mani as Periya Kaaka Muttai's and Chinna Kaaka Muttai's grandmother Babu Antony as Shiva Chidambaram Joe Malloori as Pazharasam Ramesh Thilak as Naina Yogi Babu as Naina's friend Vazhakku En Muthuraman as a police officer Vettai Muthukumar as Pizza Spot's supervisor Krishnamoorthy as Shiva Chidambaram's assistant Vijay Muthu as Pavadai Sumathi G. as Pavadai's wife Silambarasan as himself in a cameo appearance
Production
Development
M. Manikandan, a former wedding photographer, had directed a short film named Wind in late 2010, primarily for his cinematography in the film. It was critically raved by cinephiles and other celebrities, and also got the attention of director Vetrimaaran, when the film was screened at a film festival, where he was a jury member. Vetrimaaran personally approached Manikandan, to ask about his other future film projects, where Manikandan narrated a script about slum children and its essence, impressed and decided to produce the film under his Grass Root Film Company banner. He later called Manikandan to meet him and Dhanush in Delhi to progress about the narration of the script and storyline, but Dhanush said that he liked the script and also joined the film as a co-producer under the Wunderbar Films banner. Vetrimaaran said that the storyline has an artistic approach and had similarities to Slumdog Millionaire (2008).
The script's basic plot line is inspired from his life, where his son often have craved for pizza, but he could have a little money to buy it, one day. Then he inspired that "what if someone who couldn't afford a pizza wished to have one", which he kept as a basic idea pitching the story line. To develop the conflict stronger, he characterised the lead artists as slum children and also realised that the kids get attracted to things only because of catchy advertisements. Initially, he had planned to produce the film on his own, through crowdfunding, where he suggested his friends to send money for the production of the project, before Vetrimaaran agreed to produce the film. In late January 2013, both Dhanush and Vetrimaaran announced the project officially under the title Kaaka Muttai.
Casting and filming