What Anurag Kashyap has to say about Malayalam Hit Manjummel Boys

The creators of Manjummel Boys are enjoying the success of their survival thriller. The Malayalam film is written and directed by Chidambaram and produced by Parava Films. Since its release on February 22, the film has grossed over Rs 100 crore, becoming the “fastest” Malayalam film to cross this mark. It has become the fifth highest-grossing Indian film of 2024. The film is based on a real incident from 2006 when a group of friends from a small village called Manjummel found themselves in a harrowing situation in the Guna Caves of Kodaikanal.

Recently, director Anurag Kashyap shared a review of Manjummel Boys on Letterboxd, a social media platform dedicated to movie reviews. In his review, Kashyap praised the film and wrote, “Simply an extraordinary piece of confident mainstream cinema. Much better than all the big budget Indian movies. What confidence, what impossible narration. I was wondering how you can sell this idea to a producer. In Hindi they can only remake those ideas. Hindi cinema has really fallen behind with three consecutive brilliant Malayalam films.”

On Wednesday, Manjummel Boys’ official Instagram page shared a screenshot of Kashyap’s review and thanked the Gangs of Wasseypur director for his kind words.

Kashyap is not the only filmmaker who has praised Manjummel Boys. Recently, director Venkat Prabhu and Pa Ranjith praised the film at a promotional event for the film J Baby.

Venkat Prabhu, known for making acclaimed films like Mankatha and Saroja, said, “I am very proud of the success of Manjummel Boys in Tennessee. At a time when hero-heroine films are doing well, it is commendable to see a film without a heroine, but just a group of boys, working better than our films in Tamil Nadu. This proves that language is not important; Only art matters.”

Pa Ranjith of Madras and Kabali fame also applauded Manjummel Boys and described it as an impressive film that did not need unnecessary songs to attract the audience. He said that the film managed to form an emotional connection with the audience with just one song during the climax.

Manjummel Boys has an ensemble cast of Soubin Shahir, Balu Varghese, Sreenath Bhasi, Ganapathi S. Poduval, Lal Jr., Deepak Parambol, Arun Kurian, Abhiram Radhakrishnan, Khalid Rahman, Chandu Salimkumar and Vishnu Reghu. On March 5, Mathrubhumi reported that the real-life ‘Manjummel Boys’ gathered to watch the film.