Razvin Namdarian

The Archies had managed to create enough hype and curiosity given its director, star kids and riding on the popularity of Archie comics. It was something we were looking forward to. Unfortunately, it fails to live up to expectations. The storyline is contrived and basing it on the Anglo-Indian community was apparently merely to justify the Western look of the characters and their use of English in the script. Of all the star kids Agatsya Nanda gave the best performance, but that's not something to crow about given that we are comparing his performance against the stiff and stilted 'acting' portrayed by Suhana Khan and Khushi Kapoor. If this was the best that a brilliant director like Zoya Akhtar could elicit from them, then one can conclude that acting is not an inherited skill. In fact, those who did not have a pedigree like Vedang Raina, Mihir Ahuja and Aditi Dot impressed with their acting and dance prowess. Sadly, they are not really given their due with the PR team giving top billing to illustrious surnames. The movie fails on all counts and is torturous to sit through. Though one must give credit to great sets and costumes that nail the period that the movie is set in and the cinematography as well. The Archies is going to go down in movie history as an ode to nepotism.