[4] The film stars an ensemble cast, which includes Soubin Shahir, Sreenath Bhasi, Deepak Parambol, Balu Varghese, Ganapathi S. Poduval, Lal Jr., Abhiram Radhakrishnan, Arun Kurian, Khalid Rahman and Shebin Benson.

Manjummel Boys was released worldwide on 22 February 2024 in theaters to critical acclaim with praise for its technical aspects, cast performances, background score, writing, and direction.

[8][3] In 2006, ten friends from an arts club in Kochi leave on a trip to Kodaikanal in the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu, during the Onam vacation.

They explore Kodaikanal and before leaving, one of the friends, Sudhi mentions the Guna Caves, a place where the film Gunaa was shot.

En route, he reveals that the last person who fell into the hole was the former Central Minister's nephew around ten years before and all the forces got together to rescue him, to no avail.

[10] Soubin Shahir and Sreenath Bhasi were roped to play the lead roles, in their fifth collaboration following Parava (2017), Kumbalangi Nights, Virus (2019), and Bheeshma Parvam (2022).

[10] Cinematographer Shyju Khalid, musician Sushin Shyam, editor Vivek Harshan and production designer Ajayan Chalissery were announced as a part of the technical crew.

[10][11] The real life Manjummel Boys make a cameo appearance as the opposing gang during a tug of war contest.

[26] The film began streaming on Disney+ Hotstar from 5 May 2024 in Malayalam and dubbed versions of Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Hindi languages.

S. Devasankar of Pinkvilla gave 4/5 stars and wrote "Manjummel Boys is one of the finest additions to Malayalam survival thriller films.

[40] Gopika I. S. of The Times of India gave 4/5 stars and wrote "Manjummel Boys isn't your average friendship flick packed like a survival film.

[41] Arjun Menon of Rediff gave 4/5 stars and wrote "Manjummel Boys gets so many things right that the small nitpicks don't amount to much in the larger picture".

[42] Sanjith Sridharan of OTTplay gave 3+1⁄2 / 5 stars and wrote "Chidambaram hasn't tried to overdramatise Manjummel Boys for the sake of entertainment and has kept it mostly true to the events that had transpired in Kodaikanal in 2006".

[43] Anandu Suresh of The Indian Express gave 3/5 stars and wrote "Despite its shortcomings, Chidambaram's film can indeed be seen as a powerful tribute to the real Manjummel Boys and their determined efforts to save their dear one".

[44] Janani K. of India Today gave 3/5 stars and wrote "Director Chidambaram's Manjummel Boys is a heartwarming thriller which is earnest in its attempt".

[45] S. R. Praveen of The Hindu wrote "Though the survival thriller part brings back memories of Bharathan's Malootty, this one takes a different path by tying the events closely to their friendship of the characters".

[46] Princy Alexander of Onmanorama wrote "Overall, the movie is a neatly crafted tale of friendship that triumphs over the survival drama".

He said the tourists from Kerala engage in excessive drinking, vomiting, stumbling, and displaying a lack of common sense or social awareness.

[50] On 17 May 2024, the Kerala High Court stayed the proceedings for a month based on the petition filed by the Defendant seeking to quash the criminal case.

[51] On 22 May 2024, music composer Ilaiyaraaja issued a formal notice to the producers of Manjummel Boys for the unauthorized use of his song "Kanmani Anbodu Kadhalan" from Gunaa.