Star Spangled Nostalgia:
It took a lot of jumping through cultural hoops to fit the very American Archies comics ethos into India. The comics about the antics of the pimpled redhead Archie Andrews and his mates at Riverdale High were very popular back in the day, though now it all seems very outdated.
In The Archies, her movie version (on Netflix), Zoya Akhtar has retained the retro look by setting it in the 1960s in Riverdale town populated by Anglo-Indians. So the costumes of that period can be retained, even if the Hindi-Urdu spoken by the Anglo-Indians sounds incongruous.
The comics did not have a plot as such, the characters were given quirks and a lot of the humour grew out of that, Jughead’s gluttony for instance, Moose’s “duh” stupidity, Veronica’s vanity, Reggie’s nastiness towards Archie. There was the running gag of the principal Mr Weatherbee’s grumbles about the school cook, Beazley’s awful cooking and the janitor Svenson’s wry comments. Many of the characters are to be found in the film, but without their recognizable traits.
Archie (Agastya Nanda) is torn between rich Veronica (Suhana Khan) and sweet Betty (Khushi Kapoor), but the young women are best friends and put the philandering Archie in his place. The sharp-tongued Reggie (Vedang Raina) is (godhelpus!) a kind and socially aware aspiring comic. And Dalton (Yuvraj Menda) is a closeted gay. Without his distinctive headgear and and compulsive face-stuffing, Jughead (Mihir Ahuja) loses his spark.
Since the backdrop is Anglo-Indian, the references are British as opposed to the Americanness of the original. Archie aspires to go to London unlike his patriotic father who stayed back after Independence and considers India his “mulk”.
To give a 141-minute a direction, the Riverdale gang needs a purpose, which is saving their town’s centre, Green Park, from developers—unfortunately a very hackneyed plot device. Veronica’s father Hiram Lodge (Alyy Khan) is the heartless businessman behind the scheme.
Overlook the lack of imagination here, because it is used in spades in the energetically choreographed dance numbers, that are utilized to make a point, rather than just punctuate the action, in the best tradition of the Hollywood musical. Akhtar has modernized the film in subtle ways– like having her young bunch sing “everything is political” and have the intelligence to push their agenda to save their town.
The three lead actors, nepo babies to use the current term, have been groomed and buffed to perfection, and launched in film that makes no great demands on their acting talent. Also, since this film was made for Netflix, they did not even have to go through the box-office litmus test. How they fare in their next film will decide if they have what it takes.
(This piece first appeared in seniorstoday.in)
