The Archies review: Big B and SRK star kids make an impact, but film lacks fizz

Director: Zoya Akhtar

Starring: Agastya Nanda, Suhana Khan, Khushi Kapoor, Vedang Raina

Rating: 2.5 stars

A picture-perfect hill town. Beautiful people who appear to have stepped straight out of a salon. Colourful men, women and children playing dress up with bouffant, stiff jackets, pipes and swing skirts. Idealistic, well-behaved teens fighting for a cause. And a happily ever-after-ending.

The Archies, directed by Zoya Akhtar paints a utopian world in a comic book frame. It is evident from the opening credits that Zoya, the maker behind deeply layered, complex yet highly entertaining movies and series like Luck by Chance, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, Gully Boy and Made in Heaven, has treated this Netflix release with an indulgent feathery touch that a title like this deserved. It’s a musical, a comedy, a teen love story and a film with a message. (Yes, it’s all of those)!

Let’s get straight to the story. In Riverdale, a sweet little hill town in 1964 India, resides a group of 17-year-old Anglo-Indian kids with their families. This is a community that has been criminally under-represented in Indian cinema, so seeing them on screen is a welcome change, though it’s far from a realistic representation.

Archie (Agastya Nanda) is Riverdale’s heartthrob with two pretty girls Betty (Khushi Kapoor) and Veronica (Suhana Khan) vying for his attention. He has other friends (Jughead Jones, Ethel Muggs, Big Moose, Reggie etc) each with their minor quirks but together they are a happy bunch who cycle around town, go swimming in the sun, dance in the park and do the twist at house parties. The plot revolves around these teens with the adults merely playing supporting parts, so one would assume it would be about teenage heartache, triangular puppy love, competition, falling in love and adulting. Say, a 1960s version of ‘The Kissing Booth’ or ‘To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before’….the regular teen fluff stuff.

Wrong. The fluff is there in dollops but the story is about a historical ‘Green Park’ being usurped by corporates (including a parent of one of the kids) for a hotel, which the youngsters are determined to stop. Now, not all teen movies need to be about love, fun and coming-of-age. One can have a frothy movie about pretty youngsters who also have a conscience.

But the question is – why call it The Archies then?

For people of a certain vintage, Archie comics were a window to the American way of life. The books were an essential part of growing up and I remember exchanging them with schoolmates, with each taking their own side in the Betty vs Veronica battle for Archie’s love. Leafing through an Archie was as comforting as watching an episode of Friends – a chuckle and good times were guaranteed. One actually felt we were part of Riverdale’s residents.

The Archies offers no such feeling. Neither does it take Gen Xers on a nostalgic ride nor does it offer something new to millennials or Gen-Zers who may not be familiar with this world. The Archie Andrews, Betty Cooper, Veronica Lodge and Jughead Jones in this film could have been called any other name and it would have made no difference. For something that was marketed as an ‘Indianised’ version of the comics, that’s a huge letdown. The only thing ‘Archie’ about the characters in the film are the names.

The bratty Ronnie and sassy Betty I remember, fought hard for Archie’s affection. Here, they are best friends who are ready to sacrifice their love for friendship – because, girl bonding! Reggie isn’t a mean guy, always ready to steal Archie’s thunder and Jughead doesn’t crack a single cheeky, sardonic one-liner.