Writer and director: Gautham Vasudev Menon
Cast: Varun, Krishna, Raahei
Available in: Theatres
Duration: 130 minutes
I would rather have the headline read, "There is no Josh in Joshua." Not just because it’s true and has a nice pun to it, but also because Gautham Vasudev Menon seems to be obsessed with the name. Even before the title card is played, we have heard Joshua multiple times — a love song too has many mentions of "Joshua" with rhyming lines that go something like ‘Naan Un Joshua, Enodu Serndhu Vaazha Vaa’.
Yes, the overdose of 'Joshua' makes us sigh a few times but why are we overfed? At first, we wonder whether it's because the film is so focused on its hero that it wants to hype both actor Varun and his character Joshua. Yet something doesn’t add up because we don't celebrate him much, and we slowly realise neither does the film. Joshua is a contract killer but except for one murder, we see the rest of his introduction in an animated form. His flashback too is reduced to two dialogues that don’t impact us. In the middle of this, he falls in love with Kundavi (Raahei) and decides not to be a contract killer anymore. He then becomes the head of a protection unit and we are told that through a third-person narration and in montages, which again only push one away from understanding the protagonist. So, we begin to doubt the film’s intention. Is the film then only obsessed with the name “Joshua”? This could also be seen in the way Kundavi's dialogues are written.
She is an important attorney in a New York prosecution team that is up against a Mexican drug lord. This case and her arguments can change the way the whole drug mafia works in the entire world. She eventually needs protection and this brings Joshua and Kundavi further close. There are moments where you see glimpses of how Kundavi’s character was imagined — a righteous and independent woman full of dreams and ambitions...someone who is ready to take down ANYONE to ensure justice is served. But this is limited to a few moments. Otherwise, all she does is reach out to Joshua and call his name several times, so much so that she competes with Isha's countless "Shiva(s)" from Brahmāstra (2022).
A part of the disconnect we feel with the romance is because the film doesn’t make us see the connection, let alone feel it. For instance, after a sort of breakup, they both meet in an undesired circumstance. But they greet each other so mechanically; there is no bitterness, regret or anger. It’s a plain handshake. You could like or dislike a Gautham Menon film, but Joshua is a film where you struggle to see the director’s touch. We are expected to buy into the lead pair with a few meet-cute moments in the usual urban setting, where even the camera doesn’t let us see them both together and instead captures it from weird top angles, showing us only their eyes. And then there are the songs, which are placed over fight sequences and completely out of place. A GVM film dialogue often stays with you long after the film ends, but that sadly cannot be said of Joshua. Although Varun seems to have cracked his dialogue delivery, Raahei struggles.
We've come to make peace with the fact that the lack of logic is forgiven and somewhere even relished in our action sequences. So when Joshua hits 10 henchmen at the Chennai airport with no cop or onlookers in sight, you don’t complain. But you don’t understand why Kundavi is an attorney in New York or Joshua is said to have grown up abroad or they have to deal with a Mexican drug lord, when the whole film is decidedly set in Chennai. This geographical shift and the characters’ backgrounds don’t sync well — even a supporting character like Dhivyadharshini’s Madhavi is in a foreign land one moment and suddenly in Chennai, the next. One thing that the film easily achieves though is making the couple's battle seem important even without a prominent villain. The bad guys keep coming — a Mexican drug lord, his henchmen, contract killers, local rowdies led by Mansoor Ali Khan, and Krishna (known as Don Shiva). Yet it makes sense that Joshua and Kundavi have to fight them all and the film manages to sustain this tension. Don Shiva is easily the film's highlight. Even if the second half is a drag, when he is on screen, you have a lot of fun. The scenes where Joshua and Shiva team up for a brief period, struggling to figure out a place between trying to be friends and wanting to kill each other, easily keep the film’s momentum going.
The film doesn’t end completely, making way for a second part or a part in the possible Dhruva Natchathiram universe. But when you walk out of the film, your mind isn't thinking of the sequel. All you want to remember is the small mention of Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa (2010) in a song in Joshua, which momentarily fills you with joy.