Does Mollywood have ‘real’ survival adventures?

Mollywood has a new buzzword for commercial success: survival adventures. Manjummel Boys, a thrilling survival thriller inspired by true events that happened in the Guna Caves of Kodaikanal, has become the highest-grossing film in the Malayalam film industry. Another film inspired by real-life events, Aadujeevitham, which tells the story of the ‘great escape’ of a Gulf Malayali from herding slave-like goats in a remote desert, is currently attracting audiences in theatres.

Undoubtedly, both Manjummel Boys and Aadujeevitham are masterpieces, raising the bar of Malayalam cinema to the level of international films. Moreover, these brilliantly crafted survival adventures have made a huge impact on Malayali audiences across generations, as evidenced by their historical commercial successes.

Will Mollywood follow Hollywood’s lead and venture into making amazing survival films based on true events?

Parallels from Hollywood
Hollywood has a long list of survival thrillers. Perhaps the best example of a survival film based on a real event is the infamous 2009 Nutty Putty Cave Incident, which can be considered the American counterpart to the Manjummel Boys.

It all started with the ill-fated descent of John Edward Jones, a pediatric cardiology student, along with his brother and friends, into Naughty Butte Cave, a hydrothermal cave located in Utah County, USA. He comes from an adventurous family whose members practiced spelunking and spelunking as a hobby.

After entering the front area, John moved to the “Big Slide” area, which was the wide part of the cave. Slowly, he began to crawl down a narrow passage known as the Birth Canal, guided by the map of the cave he held tightly in his hand.

However, instead of arriving at his intended destination, John accidentally finds himself in an unnamed area too small for cave explorers to explore. Thinking he detected a wider passage ahead, John tried to wriggle head first through a very narrow gap, intending to turn and retreat. Unfortunately, his efforts resulted in him becoming irreversibly trapped, pinned upside down at a precarious 70-degree angle.

Within the span of a single day, more than 100 trained rescue personnel and advanced equipment were diligently employed to free the young doctor from the depths of the Nutty Putty Cave. Despite investing a total of 3,700 hours of effort and standing alongside the family to provide emotional support, rescuers failed to save John’s life.

The dramatic rescue mission to rescue John Edward Jones from the confines of Nutty Putty Cave later inspired the Hollywood film The Last Descent, released in 2016.

Dissident spirit
Aside from films like The Last Descent, Hollywood can also boast another subgenre of survival films that depict expeditions undertaken with careful calculation to celebrate the “maverick spirit.” Westerners, especially American culture, hold in high esteem the “maverick spirit”—defined as the practice of calculated risk or adventure and the transgression of physical or mental limits—as a positive force that drives human progress. It’s about exploring and learning from nature.

Many Europeans and North Americans believe that their tendency towards calculated adventures is what has contributed to their current dominant position in the world. In the context of Hollywood adventure films, the “maverick spirit” typically manifests itself in characters who embark on daring journeys, challenge authority or obstacles, and explore new territories or experiences with a sense of adventure and freedom.

Perhaps the best example of this maverick spirit is captured in the 2012 film Kon-Tiki. The film is based on the real-life expedition of Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl, who set out to cross the Pacific Ocean on a simple raft made of wooden logs in 1947. The adventure ended successfully, He lent credence to his hypothesis that the Polynesian islands were Polynesian islands. It is inhabited by Native Americans who crossed the Pacific Ocean by raft in ancient times.

Another film of the same genre, likely to be released in the coming years, is based on the failed underwater expedition to explore the wreck of the RMS Titanic. In June 2023, the submarine called Titan exploded, killing all five passengers on board, including three billionaires, at a depth of about 3,500 metres.

“For many, it’s traumatic. When I’m out there driving the submarine, it’s a different experience for me,” Stockton Rush, CEO of OceanGate Expeditions, once said. Mr. Rush, captain of the Titan, was also killed in the incident. MindRiot Entertainment announced Recently she will produce a film about the tragedy titled Salvaged.

Not by choice but by chance
Manjummel Boys is a survival film, but the original incident doesn’t fully capture the true essence of the “renegade spirit.” The blockbuster film ultimately depicts a group of young men who, under the influence of alcohol, enter the forbidden Juna Caves without professional cave exploration experience or knowledge of the cave layout. They faced dire consequences, but were able to overcome the crisis only through “legendary” team effort and sheer luck.

While Malayalis are not familiar with the idea of ​​exploring the world, they tend to be conservative and cautious when embarking on something new. It is not surprising that the Malayalam film industry does not yet have survival thrillers based on adventure explorations. The trend in the industry is around films inspired by real-life events, such as Manjummel Boys, Helen and Bharathan’s Malootty, which often depict unexpected incidents.

“Although the characters in both films, Manjummel Boys and Aadujeevitham, have harsh encounters with nature, their adventures are not by choice but by chance,” says Dr Rakesh R, a cultural studies researcher who teaches at Mar Ivanios College, Thiruvananthapuram. “The Malayalam film industry seems to be carefully crafting its own version of adventure films, focusing heavily on the social and cultural world rather than exploring nature.”

However, the younger generation of Malayalis are beginning to discover their identity by venturing into uncharted territories. One great example is Captain Abhilash Tomy’s solo circumnavigation of the globe in a sailboat, overcoming several near-death incidents. It may not be long before we see the Malayalam film industry taking a bold step forward by creating a film based on a real-life adventure, one that requires careful calculations and embodies the true maverick spirit.

(Social anthropologist and novelist Thomas Sagan and US-trained neurologist Tito Edicola, based in Norway, write about politics, culture, economics, and medicine.)