IN a slum beside a major rail corridor in Chennai, formerly known as Madras, Chinna and Peryia eke out a scant diet with eggs robbed from the nests of crows.

Their mother earns a meagre income in a factory. Their father is in jail and nobody outside the family seems to have any interest in his case.

“Crow’s Egg” is a welcome digression from Indian mainstream cinema, aka Bollywood.

Watching child actors Ramesh and Vignesh carry this delightful social comedy is a delight. Being impoverished has honed their survival skills. They sell coal collected from beside the railway tracks to earn a pittance. They yearn to have TV. And in a burst of social happenstance, a set does arrive.

On the edge of the slum, a franchised pizza shop has opened. The boys have seen a celebrity arrive to perform the shop’s grand opening. They’ve seen pizza ads on the TV. What is this marvellous new food? How does it taste? When they try to get in, the security guy sends them packing.

Getting answers to those questions allows writer/director M Manikandan, in his debut film, to pillory a goodly collection of social customs and prejudices, both cosmopolitan and peculiarly Indian, and to highlight the differences between haves and have nots. Appropriately, the film has a sting in its tail. Foreseeing that is quite the best of its numerous small satisfactions.

At Palace Electric