"Vaaranam Aayiram" is a true and an honest attempt at making a realistic and meaningful Tamil film. The screenplay revolves around the most famous middle class in the world conversing in fluent English and it has all the elements that are most common within this group; studying MS in USA for instance. The direction is outstanding in some places and mostly good at other times. Gautam's conception of the Train scenes between Surya and Sameera Reddy is extremely refreshing. Harris Jeyaraj's music is of utmost quality, especially in the "Adiye Kolluthey" and "Nenjukkul Peidhidum" songs and that is evident from the fact that "Adiye Kolluthey" song was the first Tamil song to be played on V Channel.
Simran is perfect as a charming girl from the 70's and very gracious and respectable mother of the 90's. Sameera Reddy shows a lot of signs of good acting skills in addition to the oomph factor. Divya comes across as a very sensible lady expressing her thoughts with subtle emotions. The art director shows his brilliance when he brings to life the streets of 70's and 90's and the beauty of San Francisco bridge.
The actor, who eclipses everybody else with ease including the director, is Surya. Nobody would believe if he is the same actor after watching him in "Nerukku Ner" in 1998. He is growing by leaps and bounds in every movie and stands now as one of the real acting talents of the current generation in line with Vikram. He is extremely honorable as a father (except for some makeup goof-ups) and a truly pitiable young man having lost the love of his life. Not many actors can transform themselves completely to look like a teenager in such an incredibly realistic manner. Not stopping there, Surya has also taken extreme measures to build six packs and look like an Army Major that would even make some of the real military personnel feel ashamed. His dedication and acting abilities seem to be a serious contender for Kamal's ingenious work seen recently in Dasavathaaram.
