Vaarasudu Review: After films like ‘Oopiri’ and ‘Maharshi’, Vamshi disappoints a little

This outing is a perfect example of mera family pagal hai, par mera hai. Watch it for Thalapathy. This is his movie.

Hyderabad: After experiments with Bigil and Beast, Vijay is back in the formula that has worked for him best throughout the 90s – ‘family drama’. There have been umpteen number of films on the amma and nanna sentiment. This time, director Vamshi Paidipally throws in sibling sentiment to the mix and gives you what he believes to be a ‘complete family drama’.

The storyline is simple – Vijay (Vijay) is the youngest son of business tycoon Rajendran (Sarathkumar). He is disowned and is thrown out of the house for the simple reason that he does not want to get into the family business. Vijay wants to start a food delivery company. Fast forward 7 years. Rajendran is diagnosed with an advanced stage of pancreatic cancer. He wants to name one of his elder children Jai (Srikanth) or Ajay (Shaam) as his successor. He decides to do so on his 65th birthday bash. Vijay is also invited to the grand event thanks largely to his Mom (Jayasudha).

Predictably, the house is in disarray. The elder two brothers are fighting amongst themselves to be the successor. One brother is cheating on his wife (Sangeetha) and the other brother is an informant for business rival Jaya Prakash (Prakash Raj). How does Vijay get the family back together is what the film is about.

After giving films like ‘Oopiri’ and ‘Maharshi’, Vamshi disappoints a little. There is too much sentiment in the dialogues. The script is very predictable. It has a mix that worked decades back but lacks the punch. It is almost like trying to make sambar and ending up with pappu chaaru.

A lazy script extends for a large part of the first half. Luckily, during this time, you have the comedy of Yogi Babu and Vijay to give you company. Just when you think the film supports free will of women, you are introduced to the contrary.

There is a scene where Vijay encourages Sangeetha (who plays his sister-in-law) to get separated from her cheating husband and then eventually asks her to ‘think about the family’ when she goes through.

Vamshi goes to great lengths to show that no family is perfect and it is alright to live together with imperfections.

A major letdown of the movie is the length – 170 minutes.

When you have Vijay, that is the crowd-puller. He tries his best to carry the script. This could well be Vijay’s most successful outing in recent times. The next best thing for the movie is Sharatkumar. He still hasn’t lost his touch.

Rashmika, who plays Vijay’s love interest, is in the movie just for the songs. She dances well. Jayasudha and Sangeetha are wasted. Samyuktha Shanmughanathan has just one dialogue in the movie and that’s “thank you baby”. With improving technology, it pains to see poor CGI in a big Pongal movie.

This outing is a perfect example of mera family pagal hai, par mera hai. Watch it for Thalapathy. This is his movie.