Review for VARISU:
(REVIEW BY ARUNJYOTHI R)
•Language: TAMIL
•Duration: 02 Hours 50 Minutes.
•Genre: Family Action Drama.
- POSITIVES:
1: Performance of Vijay
2: Decent family storyline
3: Music
5: Background Scores.
NEGATIVES:
1: Direction was average.
2: Half-baked screenplay.
3: Many over dramatic scenes.
4: Powerless action sequences.
5: Worst VFX.
6: Editing.
7: Couldn’t connect well with the emotional scenes.
8: Predictability of scenes.
•ONE WORD: A disappointing family action drama.
•STORY IDEA:
Rajendran (Sarath Kumar) is a big business tycoon and he has three sons. His younger son Vijay Rajendran (Vijay) is not on good terms with his father, so he stays aways from his parents and family. Vijay has two elder brothers and he loves his mother very much. Vijay lives by listening to his heart, he doesn’t follow his father’s path and he has no interest in his father’s business empire. So Vijay’s bold decision will lead to conflict between Vijay and his father. Soon due to some unexpected events, Vijay will be forced to take his father’s business ahead of his elder brothers and this will make differences between the brothers. So why did Vijay take his father’s business, how can Vijay solve the problems with his elder brothers and how Vijay stops his business enemies is what the story of the film is trying to convey.
•DETAILED REVIEW:
The film Varisu is directed by Vamshi Paidipally who also writes the story and screenplay. Along with him, writers like Hari, and Ahishor Solomon joined to make the screenplay and storyline. The movie is produced by Dil Raju and Sirish under Sri Venkateswara Creations and PVP pictures. Also, Seven Screen Studio and Red Giant Movies handle the distribution and with a running time of 167 minutes the film is currently running in theatres.
Honestly speaking more than a Tamil film I felt Varisu was like a Telugu commercial movie. The director Vamshi Paidipally is a well-known filmmaker who has produced many hits in Telugu industry. So his direction was having the pattern of a typical commercial Telugu film and that exact style was given to Varisu.
And it was the main drawback of Varisu so overall I found the movie uninteresting because the movie was like trying hard to adapt into a Tamil commercial movie style. The movie is having a lengthy duration of nearly three hours but due to the gigantic performance of Vijay the movie will keep us hooked till the end. While you’re watching the film we can inherit the fact that the situations and circumstances written by the writers in the script reminded me of the formulas of many Telugu action films. So the all-around final output of Varisu was like the blend of many Telugu movies which is enriched with the usual gimmicks of a Vijay film.
Varisu is a family-oriented subject, it has sentimental scenes, family values, misunderstandings in families, jealousy between family members, trust issues, and love of father and son and the emotion of mother and son are crammed into the whole screenplay. So the intention of the director Vamshi Paidipally was to make a complete family-packed movie but the ultimate result in his writing and direction haven’t satisfied me enough. It is because the family emotional scenes exhibited in the film were not effectively written out and the scenes couldn’t connect properly. The emotional scenes were not having proper depth so the impact was less, most of the crucial family value scenes didn’t pass out a heart-warming feel. In between the comedies were also added and it made an odd dull look but in some of the comedy scenes, Vijay looked fine and hilarious. The most disappointing part was the mother-son scenes. I expected some better scenes from Vamshi Paidipally but the combination scene of Vijay and Jayasudha was too melodramatic. The bond and affection between mother and son was moderate and the majority of them looked too artificial.
Also the dialogue should have been written more carefully, the words were not having the power to engage my theater experience. I am not saying that it was bad but the dialogues went simply and none of them couldn’t felt memorable. Also after and before the fight in Vijay movies, we can hear some good catchy heroic dialogue but in Varisu it was average. The heroic stuff dialogue and the moments to give applause for mass scenes didn’t arise that much. So a proper vibe of a Vijay film was sadly not felt inside the theater , On the other hand romantic scenes between Rashmika Mandana and Vijay were unwanted. Her character was written out badly and their combination scene was dragging the movie. How they are falling in love was disastrous and I think she was chosen as the heroine only to have some dance number with Vijay.
Next, when seeing the filmmaking it was more like a high-budget television serial, the style and dialogue modulations which we can see in the family serial can be seen in the whole premises of Varisu. Hero trying to solve the problems inside the family, the parents realize the love of their heroic son, the conflicts with inside members of the hero’s family and how the hero solves it with ‘passam’ and fights is beautifully presented in an overdramatic serial format. When seeing the previous films of Vamshi Paidipally this teleserial level of filmmaking was never felt, but in Varisu the whole film was like seeing a high-budget mega-family serial. To give more rich appealing visual beauty, the kind of VFX which we can see in the film will blow your mind, it was that much unrealistic. I still can’t believe that a director like Vamshi Paidipally had added this kind of visual effects craps, the intro song and the in-between added visual effects were making the film look funny.
When looking into the acting everyone did their characters well, performance was good. The one-man show of Vijay was the saving factor of this sinking ship. He managed to give an energetic performance throughout the film and his screen presence made me sit and watch till the end. The dialogue delivery of Vijay looked usual but it matched the occurrences in an ok way. I didn’t get any lag while watching the film and it’s because of his performance, the usual gimmicks and style of Vijay can be seen in Varisu and it was not boring. His comedies, action sequences and dialogue delivery fitted the satire of a commercial hero and he did his part well. The dance looked little but weak, the energy which we saw in his previous film was not seen in the dance steps of Varisu. So overall Varisu is a one-man show of Vijay’s cool and energetic performance and I’m sure his fans won’t be disappointed. Jayasudha as mother and Sarathkumar father of Vijay did a neat performance. Their role was enriched with many emotional scenes and they had done it authentically. The combination scene with Vijay had given a feel of mother-father sentiments and it matched the situations of the storyline. Prakash Raj did a nice job as the villain but the character looked like a typical Telugu villain. His character should have been written in a better way, a tough hero-villain fight was missing. Srikanth and Shaam as the elder brothers did their supporting roles well, the negative shade in their characters was acted out convincingly. The combination scene with Vijay had the bond of affection of a brotherhood relationship. Rashmika Mandanna as the heroine was having nothing to do, her character was weak. To dance with Vijay an actress is needed and for that Rashmika was chosen. She looked cute and her dance moves were impressive but to perform she had nothing.
The music by Thaman S was superb, and the songs and the background score were having an impact. The song “Ranjithame” sung by Vijay and M.M Manasi was amazing, the vocals and dance steps of Vijay and the chorus singing was nice to hear. Also, the fans were dancing and enjoying themselves in the theater so the song had such a big impact. When the song”Thee Thalapathy” sung by Silambarasan came the whole theatre went crazy, whistles and loud chants of Vijay were heard all over and STR had made a brilliant singing. Another song “Soul of Varisu” sung by K. S. Chithra is now on my favourite list, even hearing we can feel the love of our mother. The song “Vaa Thalaivaa” managed to give a decent intro for Vijay and “Jimikki Ponnu” by Anirudh Ravichander and Jonita Gandhi was good with their vocals and dances of Vijay and Rashmika. The background score was also terrific, the emotional scene was backed with some powerful tunes and it was matching to hold the attention. The BGM during the action sequences was also matching and the heroic punch dialogues of Vijay was also lifted with some tunes like “Vaa Thalaivaa” which made the fans applaud and whistle. The cinematography of Karthik Palani was mediocre, the frames were nice but the camera movement and placement during the action sequence lacked to give a visual punch. The visuals of the action were not that much looking stylish but the closeup frames looked good. The emotional scenes of the actors were nicely captured and it made the ambience of the film into a family mood. The editing was poor, for a better engaging theatre watch the editor Praveen K.L found had trimmed some parts. Many unwanted scenes were there and the first was slow compared with the second half. The VFX in the film was like an animation, no originality and completely unrealistic. Some of the art set done in the beginning to showcase the all India travel of Vijay was an utter failure, by looking at itself we can notice that it’s all made up.
.•CONCLUSION:
So overall ‘Varisu’ had given me a disappointing theater experience, I was not that much pleased with the direction and script of Vamshi Paidipally. He could have done the film better, Varisu looks like a typical Vijay film with his usual common styles. As a family-oriented film for me, the film looked like an overdramatic television serial crammed full of ‘passam’. The lengthy duration and predictability had also made Varisu weaker, still, if you are a die-hard fan of Vijay then undoubtedly you can take the tickets for Varisu. Therefore, to conclude it’s the festival season of Pongal so for a jolly time pass with your loved one you can grab the tickets for Varisu but watch it with less expectations.
- RATING: 2/5
- A Review by ARUNJYOTHI. R
