Manjummel Boys: Writer Jeyamohan's take on Malayalees' 'drunken, boorish behaviour' triggers online fury

Others feel that it is not in good taste for a writer of his calibre to slam the film, which is on an incredible run in Tamil Nadu. Some point out that he was not criticising the film per se but the glorified portrayal of drunken characters in it.

Jeamohan's post

In a blog post titled ‘A drunkard’s rant,’ Jeyamohan slammed Manjummel Boys, directed by Chidambaram S Poduval, calling it an “annoying” film. His grouse was primarily against the behaviour of Kerala tourists who come to tourist spots and jungles all over the south. He wrote that they get “drunk, vomit, retch, fall, and trespass. They are not interested in anything else. They have no basic knowledge. There is no general civility.”

Further, the acclaimed writer, wrote how he has seen Malayalee drunkards in Ooty, Kodaikanal and Courtalam areas getting “involved in road rage”. “Both sides of their vehicles are covered in vomit – as shown in this picture (Manjummel Boys),” he said, adding that they throw away broken bottles on the road as was “proudly shown” in the film. Especially, he has seen it on the Sengottai - Courtalam road or the Gudallur - Ooty road. But, what seems to anger the bilingual writer is that every year, at least 20 elephants die of foot rot from these broken bottles.

“The Elephant Doctor, which I penned in anger, has sold lakhs of copies in Malayalam as well. But the director of this film is unlikely to have read it,” he wrote.

What seems to have upset Jeyamohan is that Manjummel Boys not only justifies this bad behaviour of these “porkis” by presenting it as a celebration of the common man but also “elevates them.”

“It tries to call them martyrs, grammarians of friendship… There is a sense of sacrifice within criminal gangs. Those are not lofty sentiments. At the end of the film the news is shown that one of them has been given a national award. He should be thrown in jail according to law,” he felt.

“It will be good if this movie creates awareness about these gangs in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. The police should directly treat them as criminals and never support them in any way. Sometimes, it is good that they get stuck somewhere and die. Our forests will be saved. It is a natural punishment given to them by nature,” he wrote.

Drinking and fighting

Further, Jeyamohan goes on to attack Kerala cinema, saying it is constantly shown to be happy by drinking and fighting, rioting, vomiting and destabilising the common man. He felt "social acceptance is slowly being created through cinema" with such portrayals.

He reasoned that this is because a “small gang of drug addicts in Kochi is at the centre of today's Malayalam cinema. There is drug usage day and night”.

Stirring the pot

Manjummel Boys is about a group of youngsters embarking on a trip to Kodaikanal, which takes an unexpected turn when they decide to explore the Gunaa cave, the iconic location where the Tamil song sung by Kamal Hassan, 'Kanmani anbodu kadahalan’ , from the movie Gunaa was picturised. However, the plot takes a turn as one of the boys, Subash, falls into a 900-ft pit and needs to be rescued.

Meanwhile, Jeyamohan’s blog post has stirred up a storm on social media.

One social media user commented that he recalls others expressing similar disgust too after watching the film recently – “they liked the survival thriller aspects but went on to say that they felt the boys perhaps deserved what they got for their boorish behaviour”.

However, he felt that Jeyamohan's write-up possibly generalises this behaviour to 'Malayalee men' in a “sweeping” generalisation and unjustly alleging that Kerala normalises drinking and such behaviour in general.

Harsh criticism

Meanwhile, director Naveen, who made his directorial debut in Tamil cinema in 2013 with Mudar Koodam, in his X post, has slammed Jeyamohan.

Pointing out that the writer's comment is coming under fire and receiving severe criticism, he wrote, besides Jeyamohan’s “harsh criticism” of Manjummal Boys as a film, the writer had used language such as Kerala porkis and Malayalam porkis. To which Naveen reacted, “That Sanghi (Subramanian Swamy) who said 'Tamil Pororkis' and this Sanghi who said 'Malayalam Pororkis' are two frogs in the same gutter. If Tamils ​​- even if they go to Kerala, Malayalis come to Tamil Nadu, they speak to us in Tamil. Drunkards abound in the world!”.

Naveen’s post is also going viral and receiving mixed reactions.

What some users are protesting against is that Jeyamohan has expressed hatred towards Malayalis in the name of criticising the film.

Born into a Malayali Nair family in the Kanyakumari district, Jeyamohan is considered a bilingual writer but most of his famous works have been in Tamil.

Pan Indian behaviour

Another user wrote: "Surprising take from a good writer. The drinking and boorish behaviour is a pan-Indian thing. You'll see it at every nook and corner in Goa. Mostly by north Indian crowd. So every place has it. Generalisation was a bit below the belt. And it's a theatrical experience. Don't miss it."

One newspaper said that the survival thriller became such a hit not just in Kerala but also in Tamil Nadu and other southern states because the movie uses the song ‘Kanmani anbodu kadhalan’ from ‘Gunaa’ as a key narrative device. While The Federal reviewer said that the film is a "compelling but  not-so-unique take on a real life nightmare".