Manjummel Boys

A group of friends from Manjummel, near Kochi, take a holiday in Kodaikanal and go into the Guna Caves. One of them falls into a deep fissure inside. When the local police and fire service give up, one of his friends decides to go down after him himself. Chidambaram wrote it from a real incident in 2006 and, since filming in the actual cave was impossible, had it rebuilt inside a warehouse in Kochi. The strength is in the technical detail of the rescue and the length of the waiting; nobody behaves heroically and everyone is frightened. Made for around twenty crore, it passed two hundred and became one of the highest-earning Malayalam films. Who it is for: viewers who like true survival stories and films about friendship. Who it is not for: anyone claustrophobic, since a long stretch takes place inside the crevice.