In Riverdale, a small sylvan Indian town with a large Anglo-Indian community, everyone knows everyone. It is 1964, a time of innocence, a time of confidences. Clean-faced teenagers flit about doing teenager stuff, strumming guitars in the high-school band, making eyes and flirting and dating — the good-looking Archie Andrews, the pretty Betty Cooper, the sassy Veronica Lodge, the always-hungry Jughead Jones, the cocky Reggie Mantle, the likeable but dull Moose, the sensible Ethel — as the adults, including the beloved Pop Tate who runs the cafeteria with its big burgers and tall shakes, go about their business.
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This brand new Netflix iteration of the Archie comics, which began printing in the US in 1941, and held such sway in select urban Indian pockets in the 70s and 80s, was always going to be judged on one count. Will this fresh cast, headlined by Agastya Nanda as Archie, Khushi Kapoor as Betty, and Suhana Khan as Veronica, will be able to pull off those madly popular characters?
For the virulent anti-Bollywood gang, this trio is nothing but Nepotism Central. I am here to say that these kids aren’t terrible. If I had to choose, I’d say Khushi has more verve than both Agastya and Suhana, but I will also say that the latter did grow on me: she has her father’s dimple, and she did manage the arched eyebrow, haughty-miss expression a few times.
And the others are just fine, especially the bright-as-a-tack Dilton (Yuvraj Menda) who represents the kind of boy who likes other boys, Mihir Ahuja as Archies’s loyal pal, and Vedang Raina as Reggie who is too-smart-by-half but stays relatable. I also liked that none of the kids is singled out for special treatment; they all get to share screen space equitably.
As readers who devoured these comics so high on all-American values, we know that it is easy-paced nostalgia of that era that Zoya Akhtar is going for, and the film does get in some of that feeling it its choice of apparel and hair-styles: skirts and pixie bob-cuts and high-waisted pants. And coming-of-age stories never get old: remember how we scoffed at the ‘high-school’ that Karan Johar’s self-confessed Archies-Riverdale prototype created in his ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’, and yet fell for the mix, because who could resist the high-wattage charm of SRK as Archie, Kajol as Betty and Rani as Veronica even though they looked way older than teenagers, and even though they were horribly politically incorrect even at the time?
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The other thing that the film gets right is in the way it looks, which isn’t a surprise coming from Zoya Akhtar, Reema Kagti and co, whose production values are always top-notch. The lavish Lodge residence, in which Aly Khan plays the big businessman with an eye on the green lung of Riverdale, the sprawling, leafy Green Park, the brown book-shop, the newspaper office, the hair-dressers, are all spot on. The tricky balance between the comic-book aspect, and the real-life feel is right.
But what isn’t, is the film itself. Only a couple of songs stand out: the opening one has real lilt. The plot does give us a sense of the world at the time — a sit-in at the beloved Green Park which the townspeople are trying to save from greedy capitalists foreshadows the Woodstock protest, the local newspaper stands up for the right of free expression, same-sex love is hinted at, and a song goes ‘Everything Is Political’ — but overall, the writing isn’t perky enough.
The kids, though, are all right.
The Archies movie cast: Agastya Nanda, Suhana Khan, Khushi Kapoor, Vedang Raina, Mihir Ahuja, Yuvraj Menda, Aditi ‘Dot’ Saigal, Vinay Pathak, Aly Khan, Koel Purie, Tara Sharma
The Archies movie director: Zoya Akhtar
The Archies movie rating: 2.5 stars
