Varisu - Vijay takes us back to his 'Ilayathalapathy' days with this lavish entertainer.

Commercial films and family audiences have always been the strongest zone of Thalapathy Vijay. He earned a huge fan base that includes people from all age groups through his charm, humour, and mannerisms. Vijay started doing socially responsible protagonist roles in recent times but now, he is back with a full-fledged family entertainer, 'Varisu', after a while. Interestingly, Vijay teamed up with Telugu director Vamshi Paidipally and producer Dil Raju for this movie. This is the first time that the actor teamed up with a Tollywood filmmaker and a producer. Let's see if Vijay gave a solid film after the underwhelming 'Beast'.

Rajendran, the chairman of a multi-million company, has three sons - Jay (Srikanth), Ajay (Shaam) and Vijay (Vijay). Vijay is estranged from his family due to ideological differences between him and his father. Vijay reunites with his family during a ceremony after Rajendran is diagnosed with a deadly disease. While Rajendran is thinking about naming one of his elder sons as the heir, he finds out that they were disloyal to him. Rajendran's business rival Jeya Prakash (Prakash Raj) knocks the former down when he is suffering a complicated family situation. Rajendran names his estranged son, Vijay, as the heir to unite his family and save his company. The rest of the story tells us how Vijay rebuilds his family amid all the obstacles.

Thalapathy Vijay is the biggest backbone of Varisu. It is refreshing to see him score in the comedy scenes by reprising his cute vintage mannerisms. His combination with Yogi Babu has worked out really well. The star actor also does a good job in the emotional scenes. The characters are poorly written except for Vijay and Sarathkumar's roles.

Sarathkumar and Jayasudha portrayed a regretful father and a loving mother with ease. Shaam, Srikanth, Prakash Raj and Sangeetha were good in their roles. Rashmika just plays a glam doll while SJ Suryah appeared for a short yet powerful cameo. Khushbu was nowhere to be found in the film.

The biggest win of Varisu is bringing back the 'Ilayathalapathy' vibes of Vijay. Vamshi handled the comedy episodes and song placements well. The film takes time to set up the story and progresses steadily with light-hearted songs, humour and emotional drama. But the fans are in for a treat post the mass intermission block. Vivek's dialogues were a big plus to the mass scenes. Music composer Thaman's stunning background scores are the second hero of the film.

Vijay's screen presence and Thaman's BGM will make Varisu memorable. The usage of fight scenes by the director was very limited. The stunt choreography could have been better. On the downside, the emotional connect was weak with an already wafer-thin story and predictable screenplay. The final act of the movie was tiring and outdated. Also, Varisu became too generic after a point because of the boring subplots.

The editor could have trimmed it to a 2.5 hours runtime easily. All the songs were celebrated in the cinema halls. We were able to witness our King of Dance, Vijay, again in Shobi's choreography. Jani master's steps were catchy yet average. Karthik Palani's cinematography presented us with a vibrant film. Overall, Varisu ticks most of the boxes needed for a joyous entertainer. A decent watchable fare for Pongal 2023.

Verdict: 'Ilayathalapthy' Vijay is back in this neat family entertainer which can cheer you up in this festive season.