The Archies: Just a nepo-kid fest or worth a watch?
- By Shargeel Sheikh -
- Dec 11, 2023
This May I sat down and wrote about the trailer that had popped up all of a sudden on the internet. Today I sit down to do the same, this time, for the whole movie that came out on 7th of Dec, 2023. The Archies.
Back in the days when I was too serious about reading papers, Ashraf bhai (Our newspaperman) used to slide a fresh-scented Sunday newspaper Dawn on every weekend. I still recall the crispiness of the paper and its smooth surface as I raked my fingers through it.
On a section of it, there was this small section tucked in the corner of a paper in that newspaper. In it, I used to revel in reading The Archies mini stories. These were entertaining, like enough to bring a decent smile to your face if you’re having a rough day. That was the time I got to know Archie the boy, and his little escapes with his other friends.
Fast forward to today, I found myself watching a movie based on the very comic itself. It’s just that it doesn’t fit the theme. That’s not only me saying, but many others have also spoken about.
Riverdale was a North Indian fictional mountain town in 1964. It is strictly inhabited by Anglo-Indians (Indians having both Indian and British ancestry). The setting justifies the idea of portraying a Westernized old but rich town theme inspired by the original American comic.
The town is cuddled up in an old romantic era. With an uncomplicated history and lots of half-Hindi half-English-speaking people. The director does a splendid job of capturing Riverdale on camera. Nikos Andritsakis took the helm and did this magic. Unfortunately, it seems that his work of portraying the visuals is the only good thing in the movie.
The new Netflix film features a glitzy cast of star kids too desperate to make a name for themselves in the industry. Suahana Khan, the daughter of Shah Rukh Khan is the all-lavish living Veronica Lodge with whom Archie (Played by Agastya Nanda, Amitabh Bachan’s grandson) is in love. Meanwhile, Betty Cooper (Khushi Kapoor, daughter of Boney Kapoor) is already head over heels with Archie. Jughead (Mihit Ahuja), Dilton (Yuvraj Menda), Ethel (Aditi Dot), and Reggie (Vedang Raina) are some of the important characters who bring life into the melodrama that is about to have them rethink their relationship.
When Veronica returns to Riverdale, she immediately attempts to reminisce about the once deep love she and Archie shared all these years ago. Veronica shares a warm sisterly bond with her best friend Betty and doesn’t know that the latter had fallen for Archie all this time when she was in the UK. Archie, who is an ambitious singer of the band “The Archies” still struggles to forget Veronica when she throws a welcome party in her hometown.
Veronica belongs to a wealthy family while all her other friends are working middle class. She seems more than satisfied with this wealth gap between them, but Veronica‘s return brings a serious issue. Her father has returned to construct a Lavish 5-star hotel in town, and too on Green Park, a place carrying the history and the heart of the whole of Riverdale.
This is when the team of seventeen-year-old teenagers unite to bring this materialistic ambition down. Things start to get serious when this vision conflicts with their bonds and we see love, drama, and agony all pour into one movie.
This sounds classy, right? But the movie fails to deliver all this. This could have been a platform to shine for some truly deserving actors and actresses. Instead, it turns out to be a force-shaped launchpad for starkids to debut. It’s just like those forcibly made Karan Johar movies like Liger and Dhadak. Only this time it’s not him but someone else.
When Zoya Akhtar, the mastermind behind some of the best movies (Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, Dil Dhadakne Do, and The Gully Boy), was bestowed the responsibility of helming the project and carving out the perfect script, hopped seemed to prevail. But after the official release, it has become apparent that the movie falls short of the talent Zoya is known for putting into.
There is no meaningful conversation, there are no touching dialogues. The drama seems too overly, and the overall script turns out to be lifeless.
The actors are to be blamed too. While Yuvraj, Aditi, and Mihit did some justice to their talent, Suhana, Khushi, and Agstya failed to deliver a punchy performance. Their dialogues and scenes seem loveless.
Being the daughter of the King of acting legend SRK, it was jarring to see Suhana delivering a mediocre performance.
The roles given to them could be pulled off by anyone thanks to Zoya Akhtar, Reema Kagti, and Ayesha DiVitre ‘s too-ordinary script. Yet the artists had the opportunity to spruce things up with their acting. They did not do a good job in it.
The movie is being criticized by the experts for preferring the style over substance approach. They invested too much to make the movies and the characters appear fancy and glamorous and forgot that they had to fill it in with a meaningful script also.
“These teenagers do nothing more than look beautiful”- writes Umesh Punwani on Koimoi.
While The Archies does pull the sting of driving traffic and you would even wanna watch it despite the unpleasant reviews, you would soon realize that a fancy book cover does not confirm a deep story. If you haven’t read The Archies comic, you would not like it that much. If you have, you will find it worse.