Varalaru 2006

Ajith Kumar as Sivashankar, Vishnu, and Jeeva anchors a sprawling drama about power, pride, and a family torn apart by secrets. Shivashankar, a wheelchair-using multimillionaire, believes a hard lesson in responsibility will tame his spoiled son Vishnu. To that end, he sends Vishnu to Thottapuram to work with the poor, hoping the experience will temper his arrogance. Vishnu resists the plan, but a local pizza restaurant owner manipulates him and his friends into believing the village is one big brothel. Thottapuram is portrayed as a sacred place, and the restaurateur has deliberately fed the youths false stories to provoke trouble.

Divya, Asin Thottumkal, arrives with her fellow students as part of a social-activity course aimed at improving health and hygiene. They, along with Divya’s group, are invited to stay with families in the village as part of the outreach project. The students—including Divya—encounter Vishnu and his friends, who begin to woo the local girls, whom they mistake for the village’s prostitutes. When Divya uncovers their scheme, she and her colleagues decide to teach the intruders a hard, corrective lesson. The plot becomes more personal as Divya’s world intersects with Vishnu’s, and the stakes rise for everyone involved, especially as Divya’s circle includes Kaniha as Gayathri, and Sujatha as Gayathri’s mother.

Vishnu and his friends are drawn into Divya’s orbit, and the group is led to separate rooms where the girls administer a serum that makes them itch all over. The scream-filled scene marks a turning point, revealing the girls’ determined stand against the deception. In a bold move, Vishnu proposes to Divya, offering to marry her in the village temple the next day to “save her honor,” but Divya does not come. Vishnu and his friends soon realize they have been duped when they spot Divya leaving on a bus bearing the name of the girls’ college, exposing the ruse. The moment leaves Divya guilt-ridden as she sees Vishnu holding a mangala sutra, a symbol of commitment—and perhaps a real willingness to marry.

Back in his world, Vishnu returns home to a shocked Shivashankar, who learns that his son has fallen in love. Under Shivashankar’s influence, Vishnu and Divya become engaged, and life in the family appears to settle into a smoother rhythm. That sense of stability is shattered one night when Vishnu, after a nightclub party, goes to Divya’s family home in a drunken state. The family blocks him from speaking to Divya, and a confrontation erupts. He then goes to Divya’s cousin’s house to apologize but unexpectedly attempts to rape her, horrifying Divya. In the ensuing chaos, Vishnu tries to kill Shivashankar, but is stopped by Ko Thandam, Shivashankar’s trusted aide, who is stabbed in the confrontation. Disappointed and alarmed by Vishnu’s behavior, Shivashankar decides to send him to a psychiatrist.

What follows untangles a far darker truth: Jeeva, Vishnu’s younger twin, has been living under Vishnu’s identity, having taken money from the bank, gotten drunk, and visited Divya’s place to threaten or harm her cousin. Jeeva despises Shivashankar for abandoning him and his mentally challenged mother Gayathri. A grandmother reveals the hidden lineage: Gayathri became insane when Jeeva’s life hung in the balance, and the two births—Vishnu and Jeeva—were the consequence of Shivashankar’s choices. Jeeva steps into the foreground, intending to kill Shivashankar at Vishnu and Divya’s wedding. The confrontation escalates when a police officer mistakenly believes Jeeva is aiming at Shivashankar and fires at Jeeva. Shivashankar intervenes, takes a fatal wound, and dies, while Jeeva is jailed after the dramatic skirmish.

Meanwhile, the family’s fracture deepens as Gayathri withdraws from food and care. In a desperate bid to connect, Vishnu disguises himself as Jeeva and feeds his grandmother, symbolically stitching the family together once more. The film closes on a note of complicated reconciliation, with Vishnu telling Gayathri that Shivashankar is the godfather of the family. The credits promise a reveal of what really happened in the first half, a reflective coda that reframes the events that led to the tragedy and the fragile path toward forgiveness.