Tamil cinema has not had much luck with psychological thrillers. Commercial elements like song sequences, comedy and stunts do not go well with this genre and this has made the taut psychological thriller a rarity in Tamil movies. Varnajaalam, an aspirant in this category, has a different problem though. Its song sequences blend well into the movie, its comedy is not too much of a distraction and it has only one fight sequence. But its slow pace and lack of suspense and tension prevent it from becoming a successful entry.

Daniel(Srikanth), with a letter from the father of his church, arrives at the house of the retired Commissioner of Police(Nasser), looking for a job. The well-respected and well-decorated policeman leads a happy life with his younger brother('Thalaivasal Vijay') and his family, his daughter Anitha('Kutti' Radhika) and his son Ashwin(Anandsamy). But Daniel, who soon endears himself to the family, is not who he seems. He is actually Sakthivel, who lived with his sister(Saranya) and her husband('Nizhalgal' Ravi) and was all set to wed their daughter Abirami(Sada) before his life was shattered. Now, he sets out to do the same to their family.

Build-up is definitely important to a movie. When done well, it is capable of pulling the viewer in, holding his attention and increasing his anticipation as the movie proceeds (the first half of Baasha is a great example of a well-done build-up). The three factors important to a buildup are a reasonable pace, suspense about the background and a powerful culmination. The build-up makes up most of Varnajaalam but unfortunately, lacks all three. It is extremely slow, destroys most of the suspense with frequent flashbacks that lay out almost everything about Srikanth's happy family and ends in a rather rushed, unconvincing manner.

The way the director handles suspense turns out to be biggest problem in the movie. Within a few scenes of Srikanth entering Nasser's family, we get to see through flashbacks that he has not used his real name and that he led a happy life with the people he loved. So most of the suspense is drained as it becomes clear right there that his life has been destroyed by someone in Nasser's family and that he here for revenge. So from that point, we simply wait for him to start taking revenge. But that doesn't start till much later and this slows the movie down. The flashbacks do contain a few sweet moments between Srikanth and Sada but romance definitely takes a backseat overall.

The movie takes a psychological rather than an action route as Srikanth plots his revenge. His plans are not exactly predictable and are clever too. But there are too few of them to keep us interested consistently. The flashbacks, which are basically happy moments from his life before, continue here too but end up further damaging the pace. The real colors of the bad guy does come as a small surprise. But his actions, both in the flashback that provides the reason for Srikanth's actions and in the present, are too amateurish for a man of his stature. The proceedings themselves feel too rushed and don't close out the long drawn-out build-up well enough.

Srikanth is convincing as the man with a plan (though, like Soori, his maniacal laughs seem over-the-top). Sada has a miniscule role but fares better than 'Kutti' Radhika. Anandsamy makes an impression as the dangerously playful youth. Nasser and 'Thalaivasal' Vijay do their roles well. Karunas's comedy track is a little better than his recent tracks but is still short on laughs. Pinjumazhai Chaaral... is a melodious number in the disappointing soundtrack from Vidyasagar.