Interview with 'Manjummel Boys' Malayalam director Chidambaram: No stars needed for blockbusters

Gulf News

Malayalam cinema is undoubtedly having a moment in the sun. In 2024, two movies devoid of bankable stars like Mammootty, Mohanlal, or Prithviraj are enjoying a bullish run at the UAE box office. On the heels of the young slice-of-life film, ‘Premalu’, comes another stirring friendship saga-slash-survival thriller ‘Manjummel Boys’, which has already seen over 184,000 total admissions since its release two weeks ago. No big stars, just content that grips you from the word go makes the buddy, male-bonding film ‘Manjummel Boys’ stand out from the rest of the heap. Just to put things in perspective, Hollywood’s magnificent star-led sci-fi saga ‘Dune: Part 2’, starring Timothee Chalamet and Zendaya crossed over 54,000 admissions in its first week of release in the UAE, while MB has already doubled that figure.   Read the full story here: https://gulfnews.com/entertainment/south-indian/the-secret-behind-malayalam-blockbuster-manjummel-boys-success-decoded-no-stars-just-great-content-1.101474150  Subscribe to Gulf News on YouTube and watch more of our videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/GulfNewsTV  See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km  #UAEnews #ManjummelBoys #India

Transcript

00:00how far will you go for your friend and how deep will you go and that testing the

00:04strength of your friendship. It's a test of friendship.

00:09Good afternoon, this is Manjusha Radhakrishnan from Gulf News. I'm here with Malayalam cinema's

00:14man of the moment Chidambaram, director of Manumal Boys. It's one of the movies that's

00:19doing exceedingly well in the UAE cinemas. It's like a bromance, it's not a bromance,

00:23it's like you know a tale of friends, male friends who go on a trip and then it morphs

00:28into a survival thriller. It's a big hit. Are you happy with the reaction firstly?

00:33Of course I'm happy and I'm very grateful. It's very unbelievable the growth of the

00:39movie and the reception and I'm very thankful for that.

00:41None of these kids are super rich, they're not wealthy, they're not that privileged or

00:46entitled. They're just normal, right? Regular folks. Is that you think is the appeal behind

00:52this film? Could be or could not be because

00:55the demography of the world is like the middle class and the working class people is the

00:58highest. So I think it's a relatable story universally because working class people is

01:02the backbone of any society and I think that makes it a bit relatable I think.

01:07Also one of the recurring themes of this thing is friendship. A guy who goes all out to save

01:13his mate and the other friends also pitching in. So do you think friendship is like the

01:18core theme behind? I mean that kind of talks to you as a filmmaker.

01:22Yes, friendship is the core theme of this film because if their friendship doesn't have

01:27that strength, they would have left him there and it's a survival thrill. So how far will

01:34you go for your friend and how deep will you go and that testing the strength of your

01:39friendship. It's a test of friendship. How did you get interested in this Kamal

01:43Hassan thing which I thought was a very interesting touch?

01:46This K was made famous by Kamal Hassan's Guna movie which came in the 90s. So they

01:51shot an iconic song in there. So everyone who goes to Guna caves wants to do that line

02:02which means for humans to understand it's not human love, it's holier than that.

02:07So everyone is a Kamal fan out there. So everyone who goes to Guna caves wants to scream out this

02:15line. So these guys also, because Kamal Hassan went there, it's very famous, they're also like

02:22Kamal sir. So they go into the cave and they want to shout the lines of the song and then

02:29they get trapped. So I thought when I'm making the movie, Kamal sir and the song and the movie

02:34Guna is an integral part of this movie. So more than homage, it's like part of the script. So I

02:41can't finish this movie without Kamal sir or that song. What did he think of it? Kamal sir

02:48has been very supportive. Like we sent him the trailer before the release. So he promised us

02:52that he will watch the movie. We only expected that at least he will watch the movie. But soon

02:57after watching the movie, he sent us an invite. So we went to his office and like all the boys.

03:03So we had an interaction. Yes, I saw the interaction. Then after that he put up a screening

03:07by himself, like for his family and friends. And we were invited for that screen. We were

03:11guests for that screening. So Kamal sir has been very supportive because he knows films. More than

03:16an actor, he's a filmmaker. So he's a master and he's a brilliant director and writer. So he knows

03:21and he lives for films and that's why some random boys from Cochin is still supporting him. And I'm

03:29very eternally grateful for him and Santana Bharathi, director of Guna. And it was Tamil people

03:34who were very supportive and very grateful for the reception. Getting the stamp of approval from

03:39Kamal Haasan kind of elevates this movie, do you think? Any movie should be a visual medium. So

03:46the language shouldn't be a barrier, I think. And the reception in Tamil Nadu is like great. So

03:51because we used the Rayalaya Raja song, there is this Kamal connection and the story happens in

03:56Tamil Nadu. And most of the dialogues are in Tamil. 60% of the dialogues are in Tamil only. So Tamil

04:00people were like, I don't know what to say here. So they liked the movie and I don't know, it was

04:04more relatable to them and a lot of cultural references. And they all love Kamal Haasan.

04:09What was the toughest part about filming this? We went to Guna. Guna is a very dangerous place

04:14to shoot. Very perilous place because you know the story says that more than 50 people have

04:20gone and died there. Devil's Kitchen. Only 13 is in records. It's a very hard place to shoot,

04:27very dangerous. So I can't like take 200 people crew, like 4 hours, 60, 70 days here. And so

04:32it's very dangerous. So we had to build, we decided to build the cave. We went in, took the

04:36measurements and built the cave in Kuchin. And we air conditioned it to Kodai temperatures. So

04:42building the cave and making it convincible was the hardest part. And thanks to my production

04:47designer Ajay, he did a wonderful job. Even if I know that I'm shooting in a set,

04:54like I didn't feel it. So it was very, so the set, making the set and making it

04:59convincing was the hardest part. What about the casting, which I thought was interesting.

05:02Why did you choose this particular set of boys? Because they are all friends.

05:06Actual friends. They get along quite well. The chemistry is like, so we are making a

05:11story about real friends. So on screen also that chemistry and this camera, yeah, it should come,

05:18it should affect. So we are all friends and we go back a long way. Plus they are actors.

05:23So yeah, and casting a star, a superstar in this group will imbalance it, you know, like,

05:30and so everyone is important. Every boy is important for the story and

05:35as the name says, Manjumal boys. So I don't want, so the balance should be fine and everyone has

05:39an equal portion. What are the recurring themes you would say is explored in this movie?

05:44I don't know. Love only. Love is the theme. Love is, you know, the universal love,

05:47that is the theme. I think that is also there in my first movie, Jahaneman. So it's not like,

05:51okay, I'm going to write about universal. No, it comes. It's like that. So I heard the story

05:57from them. So it was like every trained people, like fire force, police, they refuse to go in.

06:03So this guy, even though he knows it's like, it might be like deadly, but he goes in. So yeah,

06:10so that is love and commitment, I think. At any point, did you think Saubhan's

06:13physicality did not really, that was the only I thought. Personally, I was like,

06:18how did this guy who doesn't seem to be in the fittest form get into,

06:22do something so dangerous and survive it? I wanted my hero to look like a normal person

06:27and a normal person can pull this off. Not with a guy with six packs or anything. Like every guy

06:31is a hero. Every man is a hero. So I want to like put that perspective. Should be a very normal

06:36person. Did you expect it to be such a phenomenal hit? Is that why you think Malayalam cinema is so

06:42good? We always worked under limitations. So our budgets were not like very high as Tamil

06:48compared to Telugu. So even if you're writing the script, you won't write a fight with a thousand

06:55people or a dance with six people. You can't write this. So we always went back to content.

07:00So the limitations shaped us to make movies like this. That's what I think.

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Transcript

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