At the start of the film, we are shown a random marriage party scene where a random skirmish erupts between two rival groups of young men who were together in the past. The random fight is shown as eventually being settled by a tug of war, right at the marriage hall between the groups. The participants in this tug of war are shown to be taking the game seriously and are shown to be equipped with pro-level techniques and all. The apparent randomness of the tug-of-war game is given significance towards the end of the film.
Manjummel Boys is a story of how a group of friends from a small town named Manjummel in Kerala come together to pull out and save one of their comrades from a deadly hole in a haunted cave on their fun trip to Kodaikanal. In that sense, it is a desi survivor drama with a simple story and a straightforward screenplay. But what queers the pitch and heightens the drama are the elements that are added to this simple screenplay.
The location where this happens is Guna Caves – a tourist spot in Kodai that got its pre-eminence from the 90s Kamal Haasan film – Guna where some portions of the film, in particular the popular song Kanmani Anbodu.. were shot. Cinematographer Shyju Khalid (In my opinion one of the top cinematographers in the country today) and production designer Ajayan Challiserry do such a fabulous job in recreating the location with their sets, angles, lighting and camera movements that it is difficult to believe that the film is shot on a “Set”.
I said comrades to denote friends for a reason. At the beginning of the film, the bunch of friends who are all from the middle or lower middle class and engaged in menial jobs are shown spending their free time outside their work timings in a local club patronised by the Left. These kinds of small clubs are very popular in small towns of Kerala where the youth get together in the evenings over carrom games or football etc are also places where gullible young minds get indoctrinated by the Left ideology with books and literature. I am digressing here but Director Chidambaram does well to showcase this reality subtly.
The annual fun trip the bunch of friends undertake is an important element of their bonding exercise. These fun trips are opportunities to escape from their humdrum lives. That’s how we understand the reason for the brouhaha in deciding the location for the next trip in the initial part of the film.
Director Chidambaram just in his second film, displays a shrewd command over his craft when he uses the original Guna song in a key moment in the climax with the audience breaking into a loud cheer at the theatre. It is also a demonstration of how he has been able to make the viewer get invested emotionally in the whole survivor thriller even when there is hardly any surprise element in the process. The various agencies like the Police, the Fire department and the Forest department who are all roped in by the group to pull out their friend are all shown in poor light and predictably so to inject some drama and a bit of humour into the otherwise serious proceedings.
Soubin Shahir who is also one of the three to bankroll this film gives a fine performance as Kuttan, the sober and mature one among the friends. The other popular face is Srinath Bhasi who is the victim but doesn’t get much screen time. The film needs to be watched in a theatre to feel the enormity of the caves. The Director did not spend much time to set the camaraderie among the friends initially which I thought would have set the context better. Also, for a film based on the real story of the Manjummel Boys, the Director doesn’t make any effort either directly or indirectly to de-glamourise the “male friends things” of drinking randomly on trips, being loud in public places, picking up fights on the way, defying norms and being too adventurous (like in this film – entering the cave area which is strictly prohibited).
These small quibbles aside, Manjummel Boys is a well-made emotional thriller that strikes the right chord while you watch. The picturisation of the moment when the friends get out in the climax accompanied by the Guna song is a gooseflesh moment for sure not experienced in a cinema hall for a long time. I would put it as a “Must Watch” just for that.
Postscript: We are in the midst of a hot political season. Couldn’t help but make a political inference. This Malayalam film takes enough potshots on the Tamil Nadu administration and yet the film is a big hit in TN and gets a lot of love. Doesn’t augur well for the incumbent government in power.
AnandKumarRSonFilms 
Leave a comment