The movie didn't have the most compelling storyline or anything. Krishnan merely remarks that they’re both grown ups now, and implicit in this observation is that Suriya will have to make his own mistakes. When he drops his son off at college for the first time, there’s no stentorian fatherly instruction to study well or be a good boy. He’s the kind of character who invites you to love him not because he’s flawless, but despite his flaws. Krishnan is an amiable loser, heavily in debt, heavily into bad habits, but also heavily in love with his family. I loved that Vaaranam Aayiram is a story about how a father has influenced his son’s life – even an action segment, which comes off at first as perfunctory heroics, culminates with the reunion of a father and his young son – and yet this father is himself no dazzling overachiever. The fact that she studied in REC Trichy and took rockfort express back home was just the perfect kicker. This was a high-achieving girl who was going to pursue a Masters at UC Berkeley. In most of the Tamil movies, the girls are either annoying and bubbly or a headstrong bitch who needs to be "put in place" by the hero. Meghna's super smart, classy and gorgeous in the girl next door sort of way. She was the kind of girl almost completely unrepresented in Indian cinema. I was hopelessly infatuated with Sameera Reddy after I saw her portrayal of Meghna. Surprisingly, a significant part of the population felt that the movie was slow and mediocre at best.
I've often left people quite perplexed when I keep raving on and on about the brilliant moments in Vaaranam Aayiram. Surya as an actor is just absolutely brilliant throughout this film I just watched it again recently and it still holds up! Vaaranam Aayiram launched the Surya and director Gautham Vasudev Menon into stardom. It's been over 8 years since the theatrical release of Vaaranam Aayiram.