Though the Malayalam word-of-mouth hit Manjummel Boys tells a tale of fortitude, resilience and heroism, it distinguishes itself by putting precisely zero of its leading men in military khaki. (One obvious reason for its success: it's offering moviegoers a break from the grunting norms of the current Hindi mainstream.) Recent films and events to commemorate 2018's Tham Luang cave rescue may well have inspired the writer-director Chidambaram to dramatise a local variant - another nervy true-life descent, dating back to 2006. The most immediate difference is that those at the centre of this rescue weren't lithe, slender kids, rather ten headstrong, fully-grown men: balding, paunchy loafers, tailchasers, drunks and other troublemakers who, as we join them crashing a wedding, have seen their Keralan workers' collective split into two factions, a source of ongoing conflict seemingly only exacerbated by regular tug-of-war contests. Already, you can spot how some facility with a rope - a capacity for taking the strain and working as a team - might be of benefit when, during a seat-of-the-pants lads' trip to Kodaikanal, the ground opens up beneath one of their party, sending him tumbling down an especially deep and dark abyss. In the rescue effort that follows, we possibly find another reason for Manjummel Boys' success: almost shruggingly, with the insouciance of any other genre film, it presents a vision of unity that may be difficult to see anywhere else in the India of 2024, a narrative about disparate folks putting grudges aside and pulling together in a common cause.
While this narrative throws up idiosyncratic regional variations - the Boys come this way to pay homage to a musical number in a Kamal Haasan movie - it's an example of a film where both the trajectory and structure are, from an early stage, reassuringly predictable. Simply put, the Boys spend the first half getting into a tight spot; they spend the second trying to get out of it. For a while, Chidambaram treats this story as the basis for a hangout movie, observing his leads chatting shit and roughhousing one another. (The stag-party abrasiveness is smoothed by a soundtrack that forsakes bangers for jams: ambient beats you might stumble onto on pirate radio at three in the morning.) So relaxed is the opening movement it comes as some surprise when the film suddenly snaps to and gets serious. Asked whether their pal could conceivably have survived his drop, a passing guide peers into the void and mutters "It's Satan's decision". (This particular crevice, we learn, is known locally as "the Devil's Kitchen".) We don't have to be told the significance when the heavens open and the cave begins to flood with sheet rain. Having handed these characters a dire problem, Chidambaram nimbly, briskly sets about solving it, and there is undeniable interest and pleasure to be derived from watching that, as the long tradition of disaster movies would indicate. Yet Manjummel Boys isn't just nuts, bolts and winches; there are appreciable character beats, too. It's a smart move on Chidambaram's part to withhold the fate of the fallen, adding one genuine note of uncertainty that is sustained with tremendous skill through the second half, an agonising descent into a suffocatingly serpentine sinkhole that either represents inspired location work, superlative production design, or a bit of both. This, finally, is what audiences have been talking excitedly about: as taut and fraught a suspense sequence as you'll witness in the months between now and Furiosa, nailing us to our seat with the sight of lives and bonds hanging in the balance. Through to the deft coda - a signature dash of edit-suite craftsmanship after all the heavy lifting - Chidambaram gets the best out of his terrific ensemble, set to convey a steadfastness in the face of adversity that shows up the haphazard, frankly half-arsed response of the authorities and might just serve as a lesson to others besides. At the very least, there is more sincere and stirring brotherhood on display throughout Manjummel Boys than one could discern in the last half-dozen Salman Khan pictures.
Manjummel Boys is now playing in selected cinemas.
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