Varavu Review: ★★★☆☆ (3/5)
Varavu is a plantation-country revenge thriller that gives Joju George one of his strongest physical performances to date, but surrounds it with a screenplay so rooted in 90s commercial formula that it rarely generates the emotional impact or tension the story demands.
Shaji Kailas directs with the confidence of a veteran who knows exactly what he wants to achieve — the problem is that what he wants to achieve belongs to a different era of Malayalam cinema. Worth watching for Joju George and Murali Gopy, but patience is required for everything in between.
Rating: ★★★☆☆ (3/5)
Director: Shaji Kailas
Release: July 16, 2026
Language: Malayalam
Cast: Joju George, Murali Gopy, Arjun Ashokan, Vani Vishwanath, Baiju Santhosh, Saniya Iyappan
Runtime: 143 mins
There is a specific kind of Malayalam film that older audiences remember with real fondness. Big hero. Powerful villain with a grudge and a backstory. Chest-thumping dialogues. Action sequences staged for maximum theatrical impact. Shaji Kailas made some of the best versions of that kind of film across the 1990s and early 2000s — Ekalavyan, Commissioner, Narasimham, Aaraam Thampuran. Films that defined what mass entertainment looked like in Kerala for an entire generation.
Varavu is Shaji Kailas trying to prove that this grammar still works. The answer, in 2026, is complicated.
The story is set in the tea plantation country around Munnar, Marayoor, and Kanthalloor — a genuinely atmospheric setting that the film uses well visually. Joju George plays Paulson, a man who returns to his hillside hometown after years in prison, carrying old wounds and very specific plans for the people who put him there.
The cartel he is up against is led by Medayil Kochettan, played by Murali Gopy, a feudal patriarch whose power over the area runs deep. There is a mystery threaded through the story — the whereabouts of Paulson’s brother, who disappeared years ago — that gives the narrative something to work toward beyond straight revenge.
Joju George is the reason to watch this film.
He does not play Paulson as a typical mass hero. There are no theatrical speeches or long monologues. He plays him with a heavy, quiet restraint — a man who does not need to announce himself because everyone who sees him already knows exactly what is coming. His eyes carry more weight than most actors manage with entire scenes of dialogue.
When the violence finally arrives it feels like something that was always inevitable, and Joju makes that inevitability feel earned. This is one of the strongest performances of his career, and it holds the film together during stretches where the writing cannot.
Murali Gopy as Kochettan brings the right amount of menace and logic to the villain role. His scenes with Joju crackle with a specific tension the rest of the film struggles to sustain. Vani Vishwanath’s return to the screen, in a supporting role, is a genuine highlight — she commands the frame the moment she enters it. Arjun Ashokan is solid in a role central to the plot but limited in screen time.
The problems are consistent and significant. The screenplay by AK Sajan moves predictably from beat to familiar beat, with dialogue that often explains what the scene is already showing. Characters announce their intentions and emotions rather than letting actions speak.
Action sequences arrive on schedule rather than emerging from genuine story tension. The second act drags considerably, with subplots that add little and scenes that extend beyond their natural endpoints. At 143 minutes, the film is notably longer than its story can justify.
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The cinematography captures the misty hill country beautifully. Sam C.S.’s theme score is genuinely good — better, honestly, than the film it is scoring. The technical work is competent throughout.
But Varavu ultimately belongs to an era that has passed. It is not a bad film. It is simply a film made for an audience that Malayalam cinema has spent the last decade moving beyond.
Varavu is now playing in cinemas.