7 min readHyderabadJul 16, 2026 05:26 PM IST There was a time when a Shaji Kailas film meant a specific thing in Malayalam cinema. It meant a larger-than-life hero, a powerful villain with a backstory worth caring about, heavy dialogues delivered with chest-thumping conviction, and action sequences that shook the single screens of Kerala. From Ekalavyan and Commissioner to Narasimham and Aaraam Thampuran, the director built a filmography across the 90s and early 2000s that defined what mass cinema looked like in the state. Then the industry moved on. New-wave filmmakers changed the grammar. Audiences changed their expectations. And Shaji Kailas seemed like a man out of time. Varavu, his new film with Joju George, is an attempt to prove that the old grammar still works. It does, but only in parts. The film is set in the tea plantation country around Munnar, Marayoor and Kanthalloor, where land ownership and estate politics are not just business but instruments of generational power. At the centre of it is Paulson, played by Joju George. He is a …