To begin with The Archies is seamless storytelling not video clips joined together to make a movie. A lot of what is said is taken from videos on YouTube with nothing much new to see. And that makes a lot of difference in the cinematic experience.
The life of Sam Manekshaw is indeed worth telling and has all the elements for good cinema. However, Meghna and the writers took a lot of short cuts, watched all the videos in the public domain and like a slide show put instances together to make a film. The concentration is just on the subject and showing everyone else as weak and helpless.
Whereas, The Archies, is totally fictional, the characters and the plot, but the writers have put it all together so cleverly. Despite a lot of negative reactions from my friends I thoroughly enjoyed this musical.
Vicky Kaushal as Sam Manekshaw was absolutely brilliant and worthy of all the awards I hope he gets. But everything else is absolutely forgettable. I loved the ‘nepo-kids’ especially Agastya Nanda, who has grace, underplays his part and has a brilliant screen presence. Aly Khan, Kamal Sidhu, Koel Puri and everyone else fitted in very well.
Thumbs up for Zoya and Reema. Expected more from Meghana.