Review of The Archies, directed by Zoya Akhtar

Lately I’ve been trying to up my world cinema game, and that means one of the various movies I’m watching have been coming from Bollywood. The American version of Netflix has been really upping their game when it comes to the international content they release, as I’ve noticed so much more East Asian and Indian movies and television shows available on the platform lately.

Anyways, at the time of typing this, I spent a lot of time in May and June 2024 trying to watch all these different kinds of movies. I also read a lot of books during this time, so if you’re into reviews of all of these different mediums, check out my blog! As of late I have been trying to up my blogging game, as I want to remember all of these forms of content.

One of the movies I watched during this time was The Archies. I had heard about it and its creation through the grapevine several times, which is interesting because I’m not too tapped into Bollywood. I know some of the gossip and keep up with the celebrities sometimes on Instagram, but I feel like I’m mainly out of the loop.

So when this movie was released on the US Netflix, I kind of shrugged my shoulders and said why not. Then I watched it because it’s not like I had anything else to do at the time. I was funemployed until I was sent off to South Korea for an intensive program, so I had a ton of free time and no car in suburbia.

I’m rambling already, so let’s get into the review and summary!

A retelling of The Archies as the group tries to save a historic park in their town from being destroyed.

In this movie, it takes place in India, in 1964, but you’re not going to believe that this takes place in India. The opening moments of the film explain the context for what’s happening here: the town the characters live in is isolated from what would consider “stereotypical India” from a western viewpoint. Named Riverdale, it was created as a refuge of sorts, and now many of its descendants are Anglo-Indians.

They live in big, Western-style homes, which can be very interesting to see on the screen because this is a movie where fantasy blurs with reality. One could argue there are strictly Indian elements about this movie and what’s happening on-screen, but at the same time it feels like the Westernized elements of the town and its inhabitants make it very fantasy-like and in-between realities.

That said, our main characters are named and based off of the characters in The Archies. They all tend to come from influential families in the town, and mingle with each other at the various parties and events taking place across this close community.

Conflict rocks the boat then when a big developer rolls into town and announces that he wants to take over. His first plan is to turn the Green Park, which is a prominent place in town, as everyone who lives there plants a tree. To tear down the park and the trees would essentially, and symbolically, destroy the town of Riverdale and what it stands for.

It’s the group of Archie, Betty, Veronica, Ethel, Jughead, Reggie, and Dilton, the youths who compose the main characters of the movie and the old Archies series, that want to stop this from happening. They know that the developer wants to turn the park into a hotel, and they realize how serious of a threat this is to the town’s existence.

Between the drama of the town potentially losing its park, we also learn more about the teens and what their lives are like living here. The main character, Archie, is leading his own rock band and has a love triangle of sorts between Veronica and Betty at times.

Others, like Reggie, is coming of age and realizing that they need to be harmonious as a society, and what the potential solutions are to fix their problems. There’s also Veronica’s problem of trying to break free of her father’s influence and being seen as her own person in this world.

So in addition to saving the park, we’re getting a healthy mix of young adult problems, revelations, and a bit of romance when it comes to the main characters.

Overall Thoughts

I found this to be a fun movie, but there wasn’t a lot of substance to it. When I was watching the film, I was more curious about the set design and the styling, and I didn’t find myself caring for the characters much at the end of the day.

The plot, too, seemed kind of thrown together with the park being in peril. Sometimes it takes a backseat for the characters to do their thing and show their stories on-screen, which is fine, but then I felt like it just kind exists so something happens in this town.

Perhaps this would have been better as a television series. It would have given us more time to live in the world that the creators have made, which was gorgeously done. I mentioned it before in the review and summary, but this is kind of like a fantasy in-between world. I found that to be fascinating, albeit highly unrealistic in so many ways.

Regardless, watch this one if you’re interested. You may not agree with all the components of my review, but if you enjoy it, great! Taste is subjective, and neither of us are wrong.

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