This week on “Yeah Sure Why Not?” Theater is The Archies (now on Netflix), a 141-minute Bollywood-via-Riverdale full-blown musical that takes no prisoners and gives no effs. Here, Archie, Betty, Veronica and co. are residents of an Anglo-Indian Riverdale in rural India where teenagers must set aside their kissyface interpersonal drama in order to rebel against The Man for a minute. The only thing these two parallel/intertwined plot lines have in common is, they’re both propelled along by elaborate song-and-dance numbers – or ground to a halt by elaborate song-and-dance numbers, an assertion that depends upon one’s tolerance for elaborate song-and-dance numbers. My tolerance is thin, but I kept an open mind as I hit play on this goofy, sorta-high-concept movie.
THE ARCHIES: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
The Gist: It’s 1964. Riverdale is the perfect mid-century small town in India where Western style and pop culture has infected it down to its bones. There’s rock ‘n’ roll, minidresses and nary a single mention of arranged marriage. At the center of the town is Green Park, a collection of trees, gazebos and grass that’s the hub of the…
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