Style, substance and spirit are a strange oddity

A period story with a vibrant color palette, an array of wonderful musical tracks, the infectious verve of young actors and concerns of contemporary relevance. Archies In a region where even the apparently simple is characterized by a lot of fun and stylistic flair.

The live-action musical coming-of-age comedy relocates the enduring Archie Comics to a mid-1960s Anglo-Indian hill town setting. It emerges a largely believable universe within a bubble of joy and music where a group of fat-thief high school students navigate love, friendship and heartbreak.

While they are there, the free-spirited youth also learn that there is more to life than dates and parties, chats and camaraderie, and realize that one is never too young to spark a revolution.

Pat and predictable as that may be, Archies There is an easy-flowing rhythm thanks to the gallery of lively characters despite possessing clear-cut characteristics. The film flows without a hitch and conveys its points with a refreshing lightness of touch while literally creating a song and dance about it.

Archie Andrews (Agastya Nanda) is ambivalent about making his own. He is caught between the vivacious Veronica Lodge (Suhana Khan), who has returned to Riverdale after two years away from her hometown, and Betty Cooper (Khushi Kapoor). He has feelings for both.

Archie, the son of Riverdale’s only travel agency owner, has such faith in his own aura that he figures he won’t have a problem with his habitual two-timing between the two girls. It may be 1964 but Veronica and Betty are ‘modern’ and tough young women who value their friendship more than anything else.

The pair know when and how to assert their agency even though their hearts are predictably prone to entitlement, jealousy and sadness. Their strong bond has faced its share of ups and downs. How they deal with the opposite forms an important part Archies.

Another girl in their gang, Ethel Muggs (Dt.), is the best at what she does – she’s a hairstylist. His loyalty to his employer, Pam (Delnaz Irani), is tested when a new salon with imported, state-of-the-art equipment opens in town.

Not for a moment do the three leads seem raw as actors. They deliver products with remarkable elan. No less impressive are the actors who round out the young cast that make up the Archie Comics characters with distinct characteristics without letting any of them sink into predictability.

Vedang Raina as Reggie Mantle, Mihir Ahuja as Jughead and Yuvraj Menda as Nirav, debutant Dilton Doily (who truly proves his worth) sail through their roles with great ease. Screenplay is their companion.

It mixes spoken dialogues with several songs that give a clear glimpse into the troubled mind as the bubbly teenagers make their way through a crucial stage in their lives that sees them transition into adulthood.

The names of the characters and their cities remain unchanged in The Archies, but the Netflix film directed by Zoya Akhtar and everything else he has written with Reema Kagti and Ayesha Devitre Dhillon have been given vivid new trappings.

There is no obvious connection between the comics – an American pop culture phenomenon (which had huge currency in the subcontinent, especially in the 1960s and 1970s) – and the delightfully cheerful fable about a community with deep roots in India’s colonial past and still fully committed, post-independence, to their in the homeland

The freshness of the brew is that Archies The uproar relies largely on the lavish and flashy visual design and the lead actors deliver to the film, which addresses the pain of growing up and standing up for a cause while it tackles corporate greed, media freedom and larger themes. The curse of sustainable development.

The most interesting aspect Archies The way a group of teenagers deal with each other’s pranks, their parents’ desires, and the imposition of powerful men bent on stealing something from their town is a mix of flippancy (not self-aware). Keep dear to its denizens.

The film also celebrates the restless, dynamic spirit of youth, in the name of redeveloping the town square by building a shopping plaza and a luxury hotel to boost Riverdale’s tourism potential.

City council chief Dawson (Vinay Pathak) is entwined with entrepreneur Hiram Lodge (Ali Khan), Veronica’s ever-busy, profit-obsessed father. The two men manipulate council members into voting for Green Park, a place where the city literally has its roots, turning into a construction site.

“Everything’s Politics” and “You Can’t Live for Kicks”, Riverdale High students when Archie says he has no interest in politics. Although her parents are not in favor of the idea, she plans to fly to London to study. Betty, Reggie, Jughead, Ethel and Dilton have no such escape. They have too much at stake to turn their backs on Riverdale’s fortunes.

Betty’s father is about to lose his bookstore and Reggie’s editor-father is determined to protect the freedom of his newspaper. Riverdale’s best-loved spots — Suzy’s Flower Shop, Pop Tate’s Cafe and Pam’s Beauty Salon among them — are facing closure as Hiram Lodge offers to buy them.

Veronica’s father is the one who continues to threaten the small business – an event that causes serious enough friction to nearly cause a rift between her and the rest of the Riverdale High gang.

But there is nothing more precious in Riverdale than the park and its trees – each of them has a story to tell because they are an integral part of the city’s landscape and history. They are worth fighting for. Once this realization dawns on Archie and his friends, they are forced to close ranks and start a movement.

By setting the story in a community that chose India and the years 1947 and 1964 as the two chronological bookends of the narrative, Archies Riverdale seeks to convey much more than the encounters that shape a pivotal year in a young man’s life.

India’s achievement of independence and the death of its first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru – two signposts in Indian history neither of which are specifically mentioned – were separated by 17 years. And that is the age of the minor characters in the film. They are as old as the independent nation that they are ready to fight.

In fact, everything is politics. Even when life is bathed in color, song, dance and nectar of youth Archies. A strange oddity. Style, substance and spirit.