'The Archies' movie review: Our cheese!

Movie The ArchiesDirector Zoya AkhtarActors Agastya Nanda Suhana Khan DotRating 35The Archies is a band Which also makes this movie an attempt at a musical The lead singer is Archie Andrews from Riverdale High hence from the American comicbook series so popular that I donrsquot know anyone of my vintage who wasnrsquot obsessed with it at some point in their life in IndiaI donrsquot know if desi GenZ or Gen Alpha are as much into Archie comics Or if they play lsquoname place animal thingrsquo or stapoo or statue anymore They certainly donrsquot glug Gold Spot You see the drink in a frame in this filmEither way Archie as a love triangle between the femalemagnet lead and two girlsmdashthe gorgeous Veronica Lodge and the plain Jane Betty Coopermdashhe adores simultaneously has led to at least two iconic Bollywood movies namely Kuch Kuch Hota Hai KKHH 1998 first half and Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar JJWS 1992For the reasons above you must pardon me as an audience that I watched this film equally for what it is and what it couldrsquove been Letrsquos go over them bit by bit thenFirstly this film is not a campus romance set in Riverdale High As much as it is a movie about a community in the fictional town called Riverdale with AngloIndians almost exclusively its residents Where is this town Nowhere really Although itrsquos said to be North India in the early 1960sWhat could be its easy equivalent with that many Christian surnames Maybe Goa which is where Mansoor Khan set his desi version of the American West Side Story Josh 2000Also Read Mumbaibased stylists share tips to recreate vintage looksYou could think of Riverdale as more like the hilly McCluskieganj in Jharkhand similarly founded by a British gent with a large AngloIndian population oncemdashthis is where Konkona Sensharma more realistically set her period film A Death in the Gunj 2016There is also Landour in Mussoorie for a possible locationmdashbut thatrsquos more of a neighbourhood walk than a town Speaking of which Mussoorie does exist in this movie even if in a passing dialogueThe Beatles have been around for five years Shammi Kapoor adorns film magazine cover Cinthol soap is around The newspaper Riverdale Gazette serves this small town which was set up by a Britisher to take on the British before independence much like Hickyrsquos Bengal GazetteOutside of these stray reallife references that are always so much fun to spotmdashThe Archiesrsquo setting is so deliberately fablelike and selfcontained that you have to ideally enter it as if inside the comic book itselfItrsquos a wonderful world to quote Frank Sinatra The leap of faith is in place Hence a wide range of wellknown characters from eldersparents Lodges Coopers Andrews etc to the kids so many of themThis is a purely ensemble cast film Which isnrsquot surprising Itrsquos directed by Zoya Akhtar Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara Dil Dhadakne Do and thatrsquos really her thingIn this context that can have both its plusses and minuses The plus is obvious In the sense that you donrsquot singularly follow a herorsquos journey inevitably a mainstream clicheacuteThe minus given the tight timeline at two hours 20 and progressively multiple roles you donrsquot quite zero in on the leads eithermdashto get inside their heads or flesh out a personal drama between themThe camera is visibly a wide angle lensing a group rather than individuals There isnrsquot enough comedy for a film on a comic bookmdashThe Archies isnrsquot cheesy at all The conflict is external which is to save a local parkmdashsmartly weaving in larger issues of media control and corporate ownershipAs an audience you feel as if at a slight distance therefore Things look kinda lowkey and sufficiently lsquononBollywoodrsquo if you may Thatrsquos Akhtarrsquos creative choiceQuite different from JJWS although the music is impossible to match from that 1992 breezy masterpiece And this is a pole apart from KKHH of course which worked so much for Shah Rukh Khanrsquos personal rizz thatrsquos the GenZ word for charisma by the wayYoung Agastya Nanda as the curlyhaired Archie Andrews physically fits the part to the T with Archiersquos R on it among other subtly designed fashion across this costume drama The casual charm is unmissable Therersquos an easygoing chillscene about him rather than killer chemistry necessarilyAs he goes about navigating Riverdale with his loveinterests Veronica Suhana Khan Betty Khushi Kapoor and buddies Ethel Dot Reggie Vedang Raina Dilton Yuvraj Menda Jughead Mihir Ahuja who loves pork vindaloo incidentallySuch lovely debutants finding their way in the world and the film at the same timemdashskating dancing singing dipping playing truthdare You wanna wish them well for a life in the moviesWhat better debut than to inhabit a universe so universal that once upon a time we even shopped at the unrelated Archiersquos Gallery for cards and posters some still chill at Pop Tatersquos a popular chain from Bombayrsquos Andheri Archie was the great American dream for IndiansThere are already seven seasons of Riverdale on Netflix Still what if The Archies starring GenZ was placed among current desi teenagersI guess it couldnrsquot have captured the same innocence But it wouldrsquove been even more instructive for audiences like me looking to make sense of kids whorsquore no different from what theyrsquore playing on screenAnd teenagers chiefly are obviously the target audience for this filmmdashpushed by Netflix globally in a way that no Indian content has been to this scale Mustnrsquot let expectations interfere with the experienceThe second time on I watched The Archies like a gentle warm storyboardmdashimagining flipping pages in my formerly teenaged head of the rsquo90s Would I have read this special doubledigest issue cover to cover Yes Thatrsquos when itrsquos nostalgia max Say cheese

'The Archies' movie review: Our cheese!

Movie: The Archies
Director: Zoya Akhtar
Actors: Agastya Nanda, Suhana Khan, Dot
Rating: 3/5

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Home / Entertainment / Bollywood News / Article / 'The Archies' movie review: Our cheese!

'The Archies' movie review: Our cheese!

Movie: The ArchiesDirector: Zoya AkhtarActors: Agastya Nanda, Suhana Khan, DotRating: 3/5

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Latest Photos

Latest Videos

Latest Web Stories

Mid-Day Fast

Movie: The Archies
Director: Zoya Akhtar
Actors: Agastya Nanda, Suhana Khan, Dot
Rating: 3/5