While Manjummel Boys is being celebrated across Tamil Nadu and Kerala with box office collections crossing the Rs 100 crore mark, Tamil writer Jeyamohan has criticized the film, which has led to severe backlash from fans and people across the film industry. Under the title ‘Manjummel Boys: A frenzy of alcoholic rowdies’, the writer penned a long essay on how the film celebrates the rowdyism, alcoholism, and philistine nature of Kerala and its youngsters.
Manjummel Boys, directed by Chidambaram, is based on a real-life incident and is about a bunch of boys from a small town called Manjummel in Kochi, vacationing in Kodaikanal. During their visit to Guna cave, all the guys breach the barrier laid out by the forest department to explore the restricted area of the cave. One of the guys falls inside a pit that is said to be 900 feet deep. The rest of the film is all about the struggles of the boys in rescuing their friend.
The movie is being widely celebrated in Tamil Nadu. A main selling point of the film is the many tributes it paid to Kamal Haasan’s 1991 film Guna.
While Manjummel Boys is running to packed houses even in small towns of Tamil Nadu with an overwhelmingly positive response, Jeyamohan, born in a Malayali family, has come down heavily on the youngsters of Kerala while criticizing the film.
At the outset, Jeyamohan claimed that he stays away from criticizing films as he is also part of the film industry. “Cinema is pure business here. It is not even propaganda. Just business. In that situation, it is unfair to criticize another man’s business. However, as someone who wrote Yaanai Doctor, I had to write.”
He said that the gang in Manjummel Boys reflects the mentality that prevails across ‘Malayali porrukis (Malayali loafers)’ who tour South Tamil Nadu. He criticized the rampant alcoholism in the state and the lack of societal responsibility among the people.
He wrote, “These guys travel even deep into the forest. Drink. Drink. Drink. That’s it. Puke. Create ruckus. Pass out on the roads. Cross limits. They have no interest in anything else. They lack common sense and basic public etiquette. As shown in the films, these people break and throw away the bottles.”
Jeyamohan has earlier written a short story titled Yaanai Doctor. A significant portion of the story narrates how such broken glass bottles pierce the legs of the elephants leading to their death. The writer stated that he has fought with many such Kerala youngsters regarding their behaviour at hill stations.
Throughout the essay, Jeyamohan referred to such youngsters as ‘Malayala Porukkikgal’ (Malayali loafers), which is being met with severe criticism from across the state. Even fans from Tamil Nadu have called his criticism as racist and uncalled for.
Anukriti Gusain Rawat, a former model and daughter-in-law of ex-Uttarakhand minister Harak Singh Rawat, has left the Congress party and is expected to join the BJP. This comes after the Enforcement Directorate summoned her and her father-in-law for questioning in an alleged forest scam. Harak Singh Rawat has a history of switching parties and was recently expelled from the BJP for indiscipline.
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