Manjummel Boys

Manjummel Boys is an Indian adventure thriller about a group of close friends from a place called Manjummel who travel together to Kodaikanal. On the way back, one of them recalls the Guna Caves, a site made famous by an earlier film, and the group talks their way past warning signs into an off-limits area. Their outing takes a turn when one of the friends falls into a deep, uncharted pit inside the caves. Unable to reach him and turned away by local residents, forest staff and police, who say nobody has ever come out of that hole alive, the others refuse to give up and mount a rescue of their own. The story is drawn from real events.

The film was directed by Chidambaram, who also wrote the screenplay, marking his feature debut ahead of Balan - The Boy. It was produced by Soubin Shahir, Babu Shahir and Shawn Antony under Parava Films, and Soubin Shahir leads the cast as Siju, alongside Sreenath Bhasi, Balu Varghese, Ganapathi S. Poduval, Lal Jr. and Deepak Parambol among twenty-eight credited performers. Released in February 2024, it runs 135 minutes and mixes adventure, comedy, drama and thriller elements. It took in about 4 million USD worldwide, a strong return for its scale. On IMDb it holds 8.2/10 from roughly 33,000 votes, while on TMDB it sits at 7.9/10 from far fewer votes.