Dear Joshua

Dear Joshua,

It was so good to get to know you. You were unlike the other men I've met on the silver screen, who were desperately trying to be the so-called "heroes". You were different. You were not unrealistically flawless or the knight in the shining armour. You were different. You were flawed, you were vulnerable, you were human. And that is why I could relate to you and connect to how you felt each moment even when you didn't say much. It felt like I've known you all along.

The evolution of your character was very heart-warming. You reminded me how many of us were that innocent, lovable, sensitive, talkative child during our childhood, and then changed into a completely different person when we grew older. You had so much love within you when you were a young boy and were not hesitant to express it either. It was so sad to see you grow up into an insensitive, embittered, grumpy man devoid of love and emotions, due to the imprints of the various experiences that you had to go through. But when I got to know you better, I realized that the love within you hadn't dried off completely, cos' I could see how Jenny and Sophie were able to rekindle that love which was buried deep within you.

You needed love - the love that you lost when you were plucked away from your family. Yes, sometimes our parents can be very cruel to us even without them realizing it. They may take the wrong decisions for us due to various circumstances and ruin our happiness even without them intending to do so. Afterall, they are human beings and they can make mistakes too, right? I understand that it was very hard for you to forgive them, yet you did. I felt sorry that you were yet another victim of patriarchal pressures. I know, it's not just women who suffer due to our patriarchal society. There are men too, who are forced to be someone they are not just so that they fit into the frame of "being a man".

You showed us that men like you exist. You showed us that men can be fragile too. When will we acknowledge the fact that being fragile and vulnerable is a human thing and that it has got nothing to do with gender? You showed us that every person we meet has more to them than what we can see. You made us realize that we shouldn't be judgemental cos' every person has a story about their past which explains why they are the way they are. It is our childhood experiences that mould us into the kind of person that we grow up to be. You showed us that our wounds can be healed if we show the courage to open up. Your story taught us that we all need eachother, we all need love.

I'm so glad you were able to overcome the demons within you. None of us are perfect, we all have our imperfections and insecurities. Thank you for being different from the rest, yet the most real and relatable. Thank you for being one among us.

Love,
VMR❤

               ..............................................

Film : Koode (Malayalam)

Director : Anjali Menon

Production : Little Films India

Joshua : Prithviraj Sukumaran

[Thank you for giving us Joshua.]