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March 01, 2024 03:38 pm | Updated 04:44 pm IST
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A still from ‘Joshua: Imai Pol Kaakha’ | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Anbuselvan. Raghavan. Sathyadev. Karthik. Suriya, son of Krishnan. The tale of Gautham Vasudev Menon’s male heroes and the equation they share with 80s and 90s kids is already a decade old. And yet, the ‘GVM hero’ — however worn out the image of a shirt-tucked-in, bracelet-clad man has become — still finds a special place among audiences, as the recent re-releases of several Gautham Menon films have proved. The GVM hero is sensitive and seasoned, occasionally ill-tempered but with a moral fibre, and a gentle Romeo who could make Shakespeare blush. He’s usually an upper-middle-class man who refuses to be a pushover (except when Jessie takes him on a ride), brings a certain charm to riding bikes and jeeps with aspirational value, and rises to the occasion despite his flaws. Even with a film like Vendhu Thanindhathu Kaadu, Gautham Menon wrote a protagonist in Silambarasan’s Muthu who didn’t quite belong to his usual template but still stood tall in the director’s filmography.
And then came Joshua…
He’s an emotionless mess, a desi John McLane who is a bit of a prick, and a man you wouldn’t wish to meet even in your dreams. And so to see a filmmaker like Gautham mount a criminally underwhelming Bodyguard-esque story on this underfed John Wick wannabe is an upsetting affair, to say the least. Making matters worse is the actor playing the titular role, Varun, who seems to have been told that acting is all about eyebrow movements and nothing to do with convincing delivery.
Everything about Joshua makes it seem like an amateurish attempt; almost a spoof on Gautham’s earlier films... and that’s putting it mildly. Joshua, a merciless contract killer, as plain as a plastic action figurine, falls in love with Kundhavi Chidambaram (Raahei), a lawyer on track to become an assistant district attorney in New York. After realising who he is, and witnessing him plunge knives into a dozen men outside the airport (law enforcement in this world is a joke), Kundhavi leaves him.
However, the time Joshua spends with Kundhavi changes something in him and he decides to mend his ways and become a Close Protection Unit bodyguard. But when Kundhavi finds herself in the crosshairs of a powerful Mexican drug lord, Madhavi (Divyadarshini/ DD, as Joshua’s Nick Fury) asks Joshua if her team should go for the ₹6 crore bounty on Kundhavi’s head. This is how the conversation between Joshua and Madhavi goes:
Madhavi: “Should we kill her? It’s good money..”
Joshua: “No…. oh wait, she needs protection now, right?”
Madhavi: “Yes.”
Joshua: “Let’s protect her.”
Madhavi: “Thought you’d say that. Okay.”
These are trained, ruthless killers, sure, but an AI robot could speak more humanly about “a woman he loves” and ChatGPT could have written a dialogue with more life and drama.
This is the biggest letdown from Gautham in the film; there seems to be no motivation to use strong, novel emotional beats to support the progression of events, something his films are known for. After becoming Kundhavi’s bodyguard — and saving her by risking his own life — Joshua wins over her heart. But why is this independent, educated woman falling for this walking red flag of a man who lied to her about his identity, has no moral fibre, and keeps failing to come up with a solid plan to protect her?
It’s also quite infuriating to see how these so-called highly-skilled contract killers-cum-protectors (maybe Dhruva Natchathiram, with which the film shares this universe, could give some clarity on this organisation) go about their mission. Their plan to protect Kundhavi from a far-reaching drug mafia is to move her from one safehouse to another — only within Chennai — until the bad guys attack them!
There have been countless films in both Hollywood and the Indian context in which the drama and dialogues that glue together the action blocks fail, but at least you get a few memorable gun fights or car chases. But in Joshua, even these scenes are written and constructed abysmally, and the film bores you as a showreel of action set-pieces too. Sequences written purely for an adrenaline-pumping experience, with little value in the plot, lack convincing emotional build-ups or cathartic pay-offs.
Why Varun for this role? Why choose to tell this story in 2019, after Achcham Yenbadhu Madamaiyada and Enai Noki Paayum Thota? Why bring in Krishna (who plays Koti, a local gangster) just to serve a lazy plot twist? There are several other spoiler-y questions Joshua frustrates you with and, in the end, you only wish you had hired a contract killer to shoot down such ideas in Gautham Menon’s mind. Unfortunately, ideas are bulletproof. The bad ones as well.
Joshua: Imai Pol Kaakha is currently running in theatres
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