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Manjummel Boys Movie Review

Manjummel Boys is a 2024 Malayalam survival film directed by Chidambaram and starring Soubin Shahir and Sreenath Basi among others. It’s a very fun, but flawed survival flick.

A group of friends get into a daring rescue mission to save their friend from Guna Caves, a perilously deep pit from where nobody has ever been brought back. This movie was based on a real life event that transpired back in 2006, so it has that now vintage element to it – mobile phones are nowhere to be found. The fact that this actually happened made this otherwise familiar tale more impactful, but still the movie was a missed opportunity for greatness.

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My main issue with this picture is its lack of subtlety. Chidambaram is a not a good director at all. His directing style is confident in terms of technicalities, but otherwise he was incapable of elevating the story and characters beyond their familiarity. Not only that, but he actively attempted and succeeded at making a populist movie that was supposed to appeal to the widest audiences possible in its obvious emotional manipulation, tiresome flashbacks and ridiculously on-the-nose audio and visual metaphors. This paid off as it ended up being the highest-grossing film in Malayalam history, but it backfired when it comes to the quality itself.

Manjummel Boys is at its best when tackling the cave sequences. The film being actually shot on location partly was a terrific choice as it led to gorgeous imagery, believable scenarios and a very creepy, realistic feel to it. I loved the score used in the cave scenes. It was effectively menacing, making the story feel like a horror flick in those instances. The setting was gorgeously brought to life and the attention to detail in recreating its time period through costumes and technology was impressive.

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It’s a shame, then, that the film had to end with a final prolonged sequence that was not needed and it felt excessive. The religious imagery did not work for me. It was lacking in subtlety as this type of metaphor should only be done in a nuanced manner or not be included at all. The PTSD subplot was rushed and this character really needed to have been better developed for his story to be fully effective. The film is also overlong in its first act that is definitely fun and humorous in dialogue, but still it felt prolonged unnecessarily so.

Also, this story is all about these idiots who risked their lives for no reason at all, so it’s very difficult to empathize with people like these. The film did its best to develop them properly and it worked in the group dynamic that was fun and exciting, but individually speaking they left a lot to be desired, though the acting performances are solid across the board.

The film’s cast isn’t composed of celebrities per say, but that worked to its benefit as it led more authenticity to it as these are regular people we are dealing with after all. The movie worked in the overall group dynamic and fun factor, but it did not work in its over-the-top theatrics – there is even a song here toward the end which lyrics describe what happened before in what is some of the most obvious and laziest writing I’ve seen all year.

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