I know it a bit late but you may find it useful if you are still working on it. Yes of course VIC can be applied in large tropical river basins. We have done a few studies in the tropical river basin of India by using the VIC model and it provides good results. I have attached the links for some of the papers using VIC in tropical river basins:
Article Evaluation of Variable-Infiltration Capacity Model and MODIS...
Article Modelling the dynamics of evapotranspiration using Variable ...
Article Multi-Model Approach to Assess the Dynamics of Hydrologic Co...
Article Comparative evaluation of daily evapotranspiration using art...