Rating : ⭐️⭐️
Genre: Drama
Year: 2023
Running time: 2 hours 21 minutes
Director: Zoya Akhtar
Cast: Agastya Nanda, Suhana Khan, Khushi Kapoor, Mihir Ahuja, Vedang Raina
Kid rating: PG
I’m not sure how to put this any other way: The Archies was a snooze fest.
Quite surprising really given that Zoya Akhtar’s reputation precedes her. With solid hits (not to mention cult favorites) like Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, Dil Dhadkne Do and GullyBoy, we were anticipating a zinger. Plus this was a nostalgic favorite – who didn’t want to see Archie, Betty and Veronica in their Indian avatars?
The film starts off well, with a little back-story on how Archie (Agastya Nanda) and his friends came to be in India. Archie, Betty (Khushi Kapoor), Veronica (Suhana Khan) lead happy lives gamboling around Green Park, their lush green, centrally located town park, until there is a threat to Green Park itself. City officials have approved a commercial development smack dab in the middle of the green space, and while Archie & Co. are outraged, their parents (and other adults) are blasé and cynical about it. The Archies decide to take action to protect their lovely park, but it is going to be a tough fight.
The story is something we’ve seen before – small town kids decide to fight back against evil etc. (Footloose anyone?) – very been there, done that. Throw in lots of singing, dancing, some rhapsodizing, a dash of feminism, a pinch of preaching – and you have the movie.
So yes, there’s the predictability. Then there’s the passivity. The film is a long series of balls, picnics, dances, parties – yes, it’s a musical – so the characters sing and dance. But then, dancing done, they lapse into semi-comatose states, speaking in muted tones, like auditioning for “A Quiet Place”. There is literally nothing happening!
Akhtar does do the milieu well. The time is the 1960s and the set, clothes, paraphernalia are well-suited to that time. The characters live in their insulated little microcosm of a town, curiously untouched by the tumult or problems of a newly independent India. There is no poverty, crime, dirt or grime. The townspeople are mostly good (except the villains), speak in respectful, dulcet tones and apparently lead relaxed lives (half of them appear to be in Green Park in most scenes). While I kinda expected this – this is fictional Riverdale after all – it is annoying and makes the film appear trivial, silly and un-worldly.
Archie and his friends are played by star sons/daughters, and they do a decent job. Suhana Khan has the pep and the attitude. Agastya Nanda is quite a dancer. Khushi Kapoor, with her wistful sighing and self-deprecation, impressed as the goody-two-shoes Betty Cooper. But the one person who outshone the others was Vedang Raina, portraying Reggie Mantle with energy and charm.
The music is good, especially the short, heartfelt ditties the characters lapse into to express their feelings. Still, it is too little to save this weak, waffly film.
The Archies is no “Student of the year”. I’m really bummed that this could-have-been-firecracker of a film, is such a tepid washout.
It pains me (oh, so much) to say this but I am de-recommending this film.
Kidwise: Clean.
