Chidambaram-directed Manjummel Boys has stormed the box office with its remarkable success and surpassed the Rs 150 crore mark a few days back. Now, it is close to accomplishing yet another milestone in terms of box-office success. According to the report published in Cue Studio, Manjummel Boys overtook the film Pulimurugan’s collection of Rs 139.5 crore in just 17 days and surpassed film 2018’s total gross of Rs 175.6 crore on march 15.
As of now, Manjummel Boys has garnered Rs 176 crore at the box office and is showing promising signs of inching closer to the Rs 200 crore club. Released on february 22, Manjummel Boys, a survival drama has captured the hearts of viewers, leading to packed cinema halls and soaring ticket sales. With its momentum showing no signs of slowing down, industry experts anticipate it to surpass the lifetime collections of tamil blockbusters like Rajinikanth’s Jailer and Vijay’s Leo.
Despite the accolades from the critics and the audience, Manjummel Boys received criticism from some including the tamil writer B Jeyamohan. He criticised the film in a blog titled Manjummal Boys- Kudikara Porukikalin Koothattam and described it as a reflection of “wayward” Malayalis and “a frenzy of drunken porukkis (loafers)”. This has prompted many to see it as part of Sangh Parivar’s campaign to tarnish the image of Kerala. B Jeyamohan had used several derogatory words for the people of kerala in his blog and alleged that Malayali youths discard liquor bottles “as portrayed in the film”. His words mentioned, “Broken or unbroken bottles can be found all along the Sengottai-Kuttralam and Gudalur-Ooty roads. The vehicles of these drunkards bear stains of vomit on both sides.”
Barring this criticism, Manjummel Boys is having a golden run at the box office. The magnitude of this movie’s success is seen in its unprecedented performance in tamil Nadu, where it has crossed the Rs 40 crore milestone. It has set a new benchmark for malayalam cinema after it became the highest-earning malayalam movie in history.