Review: Setting a family drama against the backdrop of a cutthroat corporate world, director Vamshi manages to weave a fairly engaging film on misunderstood sons and fathers, warring brothers, jealous rivals, worried mother, light-hearted romance, a peppy songs and heavy-duty heroic moments. This is all powered by a sparkling star turn by Vijay that elevates ordinary moments into entertaining episodes.
The story revolves around Rajendran (Sarath Kumar, who seems to have been directed to always look glum just because his character has terminal illness), a business tycoon who pits his own sons against each other to ensure that he has the right successor. While the first and second sons, Jai (Srikanth) and Ajay (Shaam), have an eye on the chairman's chair and blindly act out their father's whims and fancies, the third son, Vijay (Vijay) has a difference of opinion with his methods and choses to stay away. And just when Rajendran learns that he is counting his days, he gets to see his sons for who they really are, and ends up making Vijay as his successor, which results in the other two going on a warpath and worse, joining with his bitter rival Jayaprakash (Prakash Raj). Can Vijay prove himself to be a worthy varisu and also reunite his now-broken family? 

ijay Rajendran is a happy to-go lucky man. Things change when his father becomes terminally ill, and he is left to manage his business empire.

Vijay does what he does best but yet again in a film whose story isn't qualified enough to handle his 'mass'.

We’ve seen numerous ‘ amma sentiment’ films in Tamil cinema. And some ‘ appa sentiment' ones too.

Varisu, Vijay’s latest outing at the box office, not only puts together these two aspects that Tamil cinema has milked for many years, but also adds another dimension: sentiment among brothers. With so much material about a family that has myriad problems between its members, Varisu resembles the popcorn tub that has seen many rounds of flavoured seasonings.

Bland popcorn in the movies isn’t exciting anymore, and that seems to be the case with on-screen proceedings as well. Vijay has certainly experimented with genres in his last few films – Bigil was a sports drama, and Beast was about people stuck inside a mall – but this time, with Varisu, he goes back to a formula that has worked well for him in the past: family.

Remember Vijay’s family in Minsara Kanna (1999), a group of rich people masquerading to be poor to unite two people? In Varisu, they are rich – and very rich at that. The house they live in, which we see a few minutes into the film, is among the most lavish residences you’d have ever seen in Tamil cinema. The characters inside talk business and deal in crores, chief among them being Rajendaran (Sarath Kumar) whose business rival is Jayaprakash (Prakash Raj). Rajendaran proudly flaunts his two sons – played by Srikanth and Shaam – but is reticent about talking about Vijay, his youngest son. Why’s that? Will Vijay agree to ditch his carefree life – the first time we see him, he’s on a bike trip and enjoying Nature’s sights and sounds – and show interest in his father’s multi-crore business?