Joseph had learned from an informer that Vijay was behind the death of his brothers John, Peter, and Robin and had also sent his son Vicky into a coma.

After realizing that his family is also in danger, Vijay and Pratap appoints Santhosh Kumar, the manager of J-Wings security agency, as his bodyguard due to his skills and tactics in handling his assignments.

Vijay requests Santhosh to protect his sister Nisha Gayakwad, who has returned to India after completing her medical studies from Singapore.

At the same time, Joseph's hitmen barge into the party and are shocked to find Santhosh, whom they recognize as James, their nemesis who was presumed dead.

At the wedding, Jagan reveals to Santhosh that when he took charge as NCB officer, he had arrested John, Robin and Peter for smuggling, led by Golden Horse.

Later, Santhosg tracks Peter at his Miami island, where he decapitates him and lures John into his drug lab and brutally finishes him.

Santhosh returns to India and is detained by his higher officer, but Santhosh seeks his higher official's approval to destroy the syndicates, to which they agree and their secret mission – MISSION NORC is launched where he arrives at Bangalore and starts planning to bring down the syndicate with the help of his squad officers by opening J-Wings agency.

Santhosh, with Nisha's help, lures Joseph, Vijay, Pratap and their gang into Sangihe Islands, where the squad officers arrest the syndicate members.

[38] After returning from Kashmir, Puneeth became busy in the promotional activities of his other film, Yuvarathnaa which released on 1 April amidst the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The James team resumed shoot once again from 5 July at a brisk pace after the Government of Karnataka gave nod to restart filming activities.

[40] The film released in theatres on 17 March 2022 in Kannada alongside dubbed versions in Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, and Telugu.

"[49] Prathibha Joy of OTTplay gave 4/5 stars and wrote "James does not have the greatest story, and that is something that his fans will overlook, as they’ve got to see him one last time in a full-fledged film.

"[53] Sankeertana Varma of Firstpost gave 2.5/5 stars and said that the film is "impressively shot and edited" and praised the production values and noted that the sets are "classy and pristine".

[55] Shuklaji of The News Minute wrote "James may appear tad cliched for some but it shines through as a sincere ode to the legacy of Puneeth Rajkumar and his ever-growing fandom.

R of The Indian Express wrote "One can't escape the strong sense of melancholy that comes with the knowledge of the fact that it will be the last time one would see Puneeth Rajkumar dance, fight, smile, cry and deliver punchlines.