Manjummel Boys to Aavesham: The Comeback of “Bromance” In Malayalam Films

The hit Malayalam films this year – like Manjummel Boys, Varshangalkku Shesham, Premalu, Guruvayoor Ambalanadayil and Aavesham – have one other thing in common besides their box office successes: They primarily revolve around men’s worlds and eventually talk about their camaraderie, something that rises above time, nature, betrayals and even the devil (read: The Devil's Kitchen).

Looking back, this is not a particularly new trend in the annals of Malayalam cinema. From the days of black and white cinema, you have seen actors like Prem Nazir and Adoor Bhasi ace the on-screen camaraderie. The subgenre of ‘bromance’ though took off with the films of Mohanlal and Sreenivasan along with the work of actors like Mukesh, Jagadeesh, Siddique and Ashokan, who starred alongside each other in an array of low-budget comedies of the late ’80s and early ’90s which performed well at the box office. They were churned out in large numbers in quick succession, depicting different facets of male friendships.

Filmmakers like Siddique Lal, Thulasidas, Priyadarshan and Sathyan Anthikkad based their filmographies with umpteen entries in this genre of Malayalam Buddy films like Sanmanassullavarkku Samadhanam (1986), Gandhinagar 2nd Street (1986),  Nadodikaathu (1987), Pattanapravesham (1988), Akkare Akkare Akkare (1990), Mimics Parade (1991), Kasarkode Khaderbai (1992) and Mithunam (1993), Chandralekha (1997) among many others.

All these movies explored uncanny friendships in the backdrop of serious social issues like poverty and unemployment. However, no other bromance in Malayalam cinema had captured the zeitgeist the way Mohanlal and Sreenivasan comedies did. There was a charged, indecipherable quality to the way these two actors played friends on screen. They never played people who particularly enjoyed each other ‘s company and their contrasting physicalities and acting styles complemented each other in several classics. These films raked in huge at the box office and are still considered to be among the best films in Malayalam cinema’s history. As with any trend, the demand for such films almost seemed to reach a low point in the late 2000s when a younger generation took over.

But friendship, particularly the intricate depth of bromance, has somehow come to define the most diverse films, belonging to a wide array of genre fare in Malayalam cinema so far this year. Not to say that the entries can claim to be the most well-rounded, lived-in representation of friendships on screen, but their effectiveness lies in the way camaraderie becomes manifested in creative, out-of-the-box writing choices.

Let's explore five recent films and how the element of male friendships is explored as tools for efficient storytelling:

Manjummel Boys (2024)

Available on: Disney+Hotstar 

In Manjummel Boys, a survival thriller predicated on the idea of selflessness of male relationships transcending mere friendships, Chidambaram integrates the real-life story with a lot of flair. The film follows a group of men who rescue their friend from a perilously deep pit during their trip to the infamous ‘Guna Caves’. It especially focuses on the relationship between Kuttan (Soubin Shahir) and Subash (Sreenath Bhasi) and how the events of one night become a spiritual quest for one’s own inner ‘god’, an aspect overtly suggested in the film in many encounters. The survival drama part feels efficient and engaging because of the care devoted to the film’s setup, where we get a sense of the gang by learning about their shenanigans and wayward ways. The writing is economical in setting up minor character details and little quirks that define the kind of bond each one shares with others in the group.

The best part that delineates their friendship is the use of 'Kanmani Anbodu' song from Gunaa (1991) in the film's climactic moments. As the boys together bring Subhash back to life by pulling him out from the pit, the lines from the song “This is not human love for humans to understand / it is beyond that / it is divine” ceremoniously play out in the background. Originally a love song, it gets transposed to be the ultimate anthem for friendship and brotherly love.

Premalu (2024)

Available on: Disney+Hotstar 

Amal Davis (Sangeeth Prathap), from Premalu, might well be an aspirational friend for many of us, who sticks by us even when the going gets embarrassingly tough. He is that one friend, who puts you down the first chance they get, but roots for you and guides you with selflessness. Premalu, a breezy film about the complicated ups and downs in modern romances, is also the story of the friendship between two men who are forced to face their inadequacies and fumbling insecurities.

The comic coating of Gireesh AD’s directorial touch and the irreverent tonality of the film add genuine laugh-out-loud dynamics to their relentless banter. Amal Davis sometimes doubles up as a career counsellor or even a relationship adviser to Sachin (Naslen) and we never get bored of the shared moments of their inside jokes, aspirations, personal setbacks and immature ramblings.

Varshangalkku Shesham (2024)

Available on: Sony Liv (from June 7)

Following the footsteps of their legendary fathers, Dhyan Sreenivasan and Pranav Mohanlal share a different kind of on-screen friendship in Vineeth Sreenivasan’s Varshangalkku Shesham. Vineeth’s love letter to cinema is written through the life of two friends — Venu (Dhyan) and Murali (Pranav) — who start out chasing the same goal. They meet in the most unlikely of situations and their bond starts like a mentor-mentee relationship of sorts.

They inevitably part of ways later, owing to their differing artistic temperaments and unlikely misunderstandings. However, Varshangalkku Shesham treats them as two souls with a lot more in common than some long-forgotten friction and charts their attempts at rejuvenating their long-lost sense of wonder and passion for cinema. Murali and Venu are two ciphers who represent two different ideals present at the heart of any artistic endeavour. No tale of two friends has been more heartrending in recent Malayalam cinema than the figure of two men in the twilight years of their lives reminiscing over past mistakes with nothing but their artistic spirit to hold on to.

Aavesham (2024)

Available on: Amazon Prime Video

When it comes to Fahad Faasil’s blockbuster gangster comedy Aavesham, things are a lot more transactional between the friends in question. Ranga (Fahad Faasil) and Ambaan (Sajin Gopu) share a boss-employee dynamic, and the film explores such a relationship through a rare lens of friendship. They might seem like evil gangsters but they win you over with their softer, goofball energy and charming, lovable interactions with each other. Ranga and Ambaan never seem like equals due to their work relationship yet we know that Ranga identifies Ambaan as his go-to man for anything and everything.

Ambaan is the friend you wish you had on your side, especially considering the kinds of dire, peculiar situations Ranga finds himself in throughout the movie. For instance, when Ranga breaksdown towards the film's fever fit of a finale, you sense that only Ambaan understands the depth of Ranga's concealed grief and loneliness. There is a sense of honesty and genuine care in the way Ambaan consoles him while holding back his own sadness.

In an important scene in the film, Ambaan even recalls suffering fourteen stitches in his back from one of their drunken encounters, as Rangan cut him up for not recalling a film’s title in a game of dumb charades. Though the film treats this event as a comic idea that establishes certain quirks of Ranga’s character that comes to play in the film’s latter half, this detail provides a context for their weird, sleazy dynamic that moves between the extremes of violence and their effortlessly charming buffoonery.

Guruvayoor Ambalanadayil

Available in: Theatres

“Do you know which is the most free-flowing relationship in the world? It's the bond between the brothers-in-law in a marriage”, says Ananthan (Prithviraj Sukumaran) to Vinu (Basil Joseph). This exchange between these prospective brootheers-in-law tells us all we need to know about the quirky, slightly off-kilter dynamic between them. The film comes up with a novel new angle to existing bromance templates with a cheeky twist.

The dynamics they share is one of the most interesting on-screen iterations of a twisted bromance that relies on the contrasting energies of Prithviraj and Basil Joseph, who essentially play flawed men caught in a cycle of vicious comedy that never lets them off the hook. The fun banter and reversal of their relationship in the second half keeps the narrative momentum going and it feels so refreshing to see two characters conceived and performed with such craft in comedic storytelling, which views an often neglected male relationship archetype in our cinema.