Dream pizza. What do people need most for happiness? As a rule, you will not limit yourself to two three items in the list when answering this question. This Indian film tried a peculiar way to expand this list by adding regular pizza!
The film tells about life in Indian slums. It seems that the theme is not new, but the heroes are taken by two ordinary boys who are brothers, nicknamed "the youngest crow's egg" and "the eldest crow's egg", (so-called because they loved to ruin crows nests and drink bird eggs). They live in a slum with their mother and grandmother. The mother struggles, working from morning to evening to raise two sons, then the children decide to help her. They make money collecting coal and selling it.
One day near their slums, a rich man opened a pizzeria. Children born this did not see and did not hear, and finding on the street advertising leaflet with a photo of pizza, they think that it is something special, some exquisite and unique dish. But the cheapest one is 300 rupees, so to buy one, you have to collect and sell a whole wagon of coal, and also wash cars, wash dirty laundry, distribute advertising and newspapers, working from dawn to dawn for a month. But, what not to do for the sake of a dream?.. Against the background of this desire of two boys, the film tells about life in the slums, once again showing us in what difficult conditions people live.
The film is light, but in its own way and dramatic. For those of you who love Indian cinema, please. A light (at first) and colorful film, despite the location in which the action takes place. Indian slums, you know, are not the most attractive place to live. And in India, in the slums, life is very bad. Semi-ragged, constantly malnourished, because there is barely enough money to eat once a day, and children receiving no education, because parents have nothing to pay for tuition, and public free schools simply cannot accommodate all such children. But despite everything, the children are happy. They are children, and even in such conditions they find things to do and play after hard work.
Despite the apparent lightness of the film and to match her music, in fact, behind all this lies the drama of the situation. The stratification of society in India into the very poor and too rich is painful. Probably more than in any other country. The main characters do not understand this at first. The story unfolds in an unexpected way, and this film focuses on the situation with the purchase of pizza, although in fact it is much deeper. And not because of such trifles, it happened that entire regimes changed.
Attitude to the film changed during viewing. First, the poor kids wanted that unfortunate pizza. Then you realize the movie is really serious. We cannot imagine that this could happen here in our country, when a child goes to a pizzeria, buys himself a pizza with honestly earned money (and they did not go stealing or cheating to collect this 300 rupees, they honestly worked hard), and instead, will receive a slap from a guard and a manager, because he looks unsuitable, and that he will be called a beggar and thrown by the neck of the door. Can you imagine the situation? We have on this occasion, the whole press will get up in the ears, inflate such a thing that is frightening to imagine, and even close the institution. And they still do it all the time.
An unexpectedly good movie Most importantly, the film caused emotions, made you think. You can watch a good movie. I recommend watching . An interesting story that will make you empathize with the heroes. A bit exaggerated, but a very good film that sends a strong message to society, especially the wealthy class. I loved the children of actors. Everything looks realistic about the people who live in slums and how they deal with poverty.
Director Samit Kakkad and his team did their job very carefully. First, they picked the right actors. The two children are the heart and soul of the film, and it was probably the most important thing to get the actors right. These two not only make a fantastic chemistry duet, but also charm the viewer with their game. Two child actors are natural here, and it is unlikely that anyone else would have played their roles as well as these two. And the proper casting doesn't end there. The casting team made sure that each character received an actor suitable for the role, from the mother and grandmother of the main characters, to local bullies who become part of the narrative. The camera captures the world of two children with great grace and finds beauty even in the most ordinary of their activities. The show of the surrounding area is also worth mentioning, as there are several frames interspersed throughout the film that highlight the obvious class division only by their location.
"Half the Ticket" (actually the title of the film is translated as such, not the Preferential Ticket, it does not talk about any benefits) is a much better film than "Slumdog Millionaire", because this film does not use poverty in the city, but deals with a social message. Of course, it’s worth watching the film to understand how 74% of Mumbai’s population lives in slums and how they struggle to survive in this city of brilliance and glory.
10 out of 10