Manjummel Boys ..Film review
Once again a good patch is happening in Mollywood a string of hits mostly very good films are coming out in sucession ,probably one place where one can appreciate malayalees pendant for quality .
We recently saw Anweshichin kandethum
Brahmayugam and Manjummel boys all three excellent films in their genre .
Manjummel is a suburb in Ernakulam near Kalamassery Eroor belt famous with Manjummel church .
Its a typical thickly populated precinct with lot of christian population ,where typical Cochin accent is spoken a dialect as seperate as say Thrissur accent .
In most of these places there are small groups amongst youth who have a small club ,play football ,are some superstar fans ,have a tiny club building , indulge in politics, get into drunken fights during church festivals but generally sociable friendly and highly possesive of thier regional territorial powers and prestige .
In summary they are nice youngsters who mean well and try to enjoy life helping each other ,most have some jobs too .
This film focuses on one such group called Manjummel boys .
Msnjummel boys really exists and this film is a true picturisation of an event in their life .
An event truly remarkable in its virtues which but for this film would have never been known to many .
Iam not going to tell the story as it will be a spoiler though its a disaster management or survival story .
Near Kodaikanal are a group of deep complicated dangerous vertical caves called Devils kitchen due to its notoerity of mishaps and deaths there .
It is said Pandavas hid here and used to cook food .
The caves have tiny holes as entrances to deep wells which when climbed down lead to massive caverns with twists and turns going down around 600 feet .
The Kamalahassan starrer GUNA was picturised in one of these caverns ,since then these were called GUNA caves ,
They are around 8.5 km from Kodaikanal bus stand and 1.5 km from pillar rock and these are reached by climbing hills covered by thick roots and huge trees with big rocks .
Many accidents had happened here with people falling into the trap openings with more than 13 deaths ,and Tamilnadu Forset dept closed it from public acess by barricades gates and wired trapdoors
Still youngsters would climb up find some loophole to crawl down and some did reach superficial caverns and return back though it was a big risk and punishable by law .
The manjummel boys too in thier trip to Kodai were enamoured by its tempting adventures and got in but unfortunately one amongst them slips and falls into one hole !
The film is on his rescue against all odds by an admirable friend and loyal friends who refused to abandon their lost friend to fate but persisted and the sheer guts of one of them .
The film is as good as any Hollywood disaster survival genre film technically and visually .
It impresses on the edge of seat viewer on the dangerous caves literally bringing his heart into his mouth .
Fast paced, funny ,and above all endearing the charachters are all brought out .
Amongst them the myths of the place ,cowardice of some of the policemen , support of some amongst them, the locals ,fire and forest officials ,the dangers involved in such survival attempts areball brought out well .
Above all its a celebration of friendship and one comes out happy that youngsters like Manjummel boys too exist in this state where we hear of satans maiming and killing an young student recently .
There is hope for kerala in spite of its devils is the message I got from this film for a large part of is people are good with humane qualities and will be winners defeating the wicked now in power .
The filming unlike in Guna
( appreciate how Guna was filmed years back inside a cavern with all shooting matireal transported down artistes technicians all going down many times as most part of Guna was shot here )
The famous Kamal song in Guna is used beautifully in background specially in end when kamal spells its beyond love ,it is not nessacarily romantic love but its anything pure like loyalty in friendships and such human values .
Kamalahassan himself said he was impressed by the film and also mentioned it really brought out the essence of the song ) .
The shooting of this film were done in sets as today Guna caves is restricted from entry .
The art director and team explained how they with great difficulty got permission to go in to a particular level of the caves to take pictures draw sketches take samples from a slippery moss covered ,bat filled dangerous descent .
After years of being locked in the caves were filled with marshy muddy dead leaves moss covered stones huge branches and dangerous trap holes .
They then built three 50 foot high tower sets all with fibre glass making it so real where the film was shot
Try to search in you tube on making of this film location shoots etc .
The actors specially Shoubin who is also a producer along with Gokulam Gopalan and Bhasi the other main actor were superb .
I feel it SHOULD only be seen in theater only to get the true feel of its technique .
This film too will fetch an array of awards in fact both national and state film awards commitees will have nothing left after seeing recent malayalam films to give to others .
Truly malayalam films have once again proved thier ability to take films which can jolt you beyond conventional takes and at such low costs .
Only parallel I can think of is ISROS economic feats compared to NASAs expensive ones .
Hats off to its makers and Mollywood .
