‘The Archies’ and India: Whose nostalgia is it?

If Zoya Akhtar’s ‘The Archies’, an adaptation of the American comic book series, is supposed to be a rose-tinted view of a bygone era, it still begs the question of whose history is being celebrated 

In the jolly, apocalyptic, slow burn (that is a cluster of contrary adjectives!) thriller Leave the World Behind, 13-year-old Rose talks of her love for the popular sitcom Friends as being a nostalgia for a time that never existed.

Watching Zoya Akhtar’s The Archies, which is supposed to be a nostalgic tribute for people of a certain vintage, begs the question of whose past the film celebrates. Archie Comics were first published in December 1941 in Pep Comics. The comics, set in the fictional town of Riverdale, told the story of an archetypal American teenager, the red-headed, freckled Archie Andrews, and his friends.

The central conceit of the comics was the love triangle between Archie, the dark haired heiress Veronica, and the blonde girl next door, Betty. Incidentally, was Jim Morrison thinking of Betty and Veronica when he sang of the two young girls he ran into — the blonde called Freedom and the dark one Enterprise?

Back to Archie’s gang, there is smooth, suave Reggie, Jughead, who loves his food and little else, Ethel who holds a candle forever for Jughead, Chuck the basketball star, nerdy Dilton, and Moose who was built like a truck but is not the sharpest pencil in the box.

Mr Weatherbee is the long-suffering principal of Riverdale High, and other teachers include Miss Grundy, Professor Flutesnoot, Coach Clayton, Miss Beazley, the gruff and terrible cook at the school cafeteria and Mr Svenson, the shy, thick-accented Swede, who is the custodian at Riverdale High.

Of the parents in Riverdale, Veronica’s father, Hiram Lodge, is constantly throwing Archie out, a dislike shared by the butler, Smithers. There are Riverdale spin-offs in Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Katy Keene the fashion model and Josie and the Pussycats, the rock band.

Archie’s problems are relatable to a certain type of teenager. There was a time when the world of Archie seemed more real than one’s own. It seemed wonderful to hang out at Pop Tate’s with friends planning the next day at the beach or who to take to the dance instead of worrying about cracking differential equations, dissections (only someone who has wept over not being able to isolate the eight creepy legs of a cockroach will know the heartache and escape provided by Riverdale) or osmosis — all guaranteed to get one into a medical or engineering college, the Holy Grail of scholastic achievement.