Manjummel Boys is an evocative tale about the power of friendship, says Anupama Chopra
The film, about young men who risk their lives to save a friend, is based on a true story. It’s another Malayalam hit, another masterclass in storytelling.
What does true friendship look like? The latest Malayalam blockbuster, Manjummel Boys, has answers.
The film, written and directed by Chidambaram, is based on a real-life incident from 2006, when a group of young men from Manjummel, a small town near Kochi, suffered a terrible mishap during a trip to the Guna Caves in Kodaikanal.
One of them fell into a deep crevasse. As the film tells it, locals tried to persuade the boys that their friend was likely dead, but they refused to give up on him.
When rescue attempts by the police failed, one of the boys risked his life, lowering himself into the steep gash, and eventually rescued his friend.
From this material, Chidambaram constructs a narrative that plays the audience, as Alfred Hitchcock famously said, like an organ. Which is quite a feat, given that this is only the filmmaker’s second feature (the first being the 2021 comedy-drama Jan E Man).
Manjummel Boys begins by immersing us in the lives of these seemingly ordinary men. They are all single, with low-paying jobs — one is a driver, another an assistant at a store, a third works in an auto-mechanic shop. Occasionally, they are rowdy. They gatecrash a wedding, get drunk and cause a ruckus. This is the kind of boisterous gang one might instantly judge and label as not-good-for-much. The highlight of their mundane lives seems to be these trips they make together.
But when thrown into dire circumstances, the group of 11 coalesces into a formidable whole. Early in the film, we see them lose a tug-of-war contest. Chidambaram weaves this back into the narrative beautifully; their ability to work together is ultimately what saves them.
There is also a haunting, poetic stretch in which we see the men as boys, playing hide-and-seek and swimming in a river. From that age, they learn to look after one another. Their actions in the past shape their present.
Chidambaram skilfully stitches in Ilaiyaraaja’s classic Tamil song Kanmani Anbodu Kadhalan (Apple of My Eye) from the film Gunaa (1991), which starred Kamal Haasan and was shot in Kodaikanal, including at the place known as Devil’s Kitchen, which features in this film.
Even if you haven’t watched that film and don’t fully get the weight of this reference (I hadn’t, and didn’t), it has impact. As does Sushin Shyam’s expansive, soaring score, Shyju Khalid’s superb camerawork, and the production design by Ajayan Chalissery.
And then there’s Soubin Shahir, here both as co-producer and actor. He plays Kuttan, the oldest member of the group. There is such grace and subtlety in his expressions; especially in the post-climax sequence, when his courage is finally recognised. That moment is a masterclass in acting, just by itself.
Since its theatrical release on February 22, Manjummel Boys has become the highest-grossing Malayalam film of the year. It has also set a record for fastest Malayalam film to cross the ₹100-crore mark worldwide. I saw it in its third week, in Mumbai, and the theatre was nearly full. The audience cheered as the story unfolded; I heard gasps and even sobs.
Such is the power of storytelling. Malayalam cinema scores big, yet again.
(To reach Anupama Chopra with feedback, email feedbackforanu@gmail.com)
