Happy Saturday! Time for a nice watchalong with some nice nostalgia, for those of us who grew up reading Archie comics.
The Archies
On Netflix, beautiful looking, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy music, and Zoya direction, couldn’t be bettered.
At 6pm Chicago time, I will put up an “And PLAY” comment and we will all comment along from there!
dontcallitbollywood 
Notice, first fully Hindi song. Overall, and from Archie in particular.
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Also the first one to personally feature the entire Archies band.
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Hal came to the park! 😭
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Love corrupt councilmembers full plaid suit.
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He is rigging the votes now. 😦
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I bet there will be a moment at the end where he will have a change of heart and will get these votes out
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Yeah, he deserves to go to jail.
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Fan will blow them over!
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Such a Hindi movie thing to always have “God” intervene!
Like tuffy the dog in HAHK
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Omg the council guy is going to hide the new petitions!! Noooo 🤧 I’m guessing Gomes recovers them.
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It was air, the very air of the town wanted the park saved. With the help of some electricity.
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YES GOMES! SWITCH ON THAT GD FAN!!
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I also kind of like that the white guy on the council; isn’t automatically the bad guy!
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And it’s Tom Altar’s son!
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OMG LOVE!
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Sometimes I am perturbed by India’s focus on skin tone and the number of Indian actor heros who could pass as white, but in this community it made sense!
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Jamie Alter also has a really bomb YouTube channel that I check out regularly coz he does a lot of discussion about film, tutorials on English speaking for people who need them, and personal anecdotes. A lot of people ask him “how his Hindi is so good” which is kinda redundant and repetitive (as he and his dad often said, “of course it is! We grew up here!!”) but overall the channel itself is amazing.
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I like that this movie goes out of its way to shut down stereotype while still talking about a very specific community
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It is a happy movie – not at all sad Margaret!
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Agreed, which still lots to think and chat about!!
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Well, except that Anglo-Indians still struggle for acceptance! But that’s just trying to find a downer.
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I really really want to rewatch this movie and look into all the Anglo Indian references again
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I honestly think there’s so much that can be said esp about how Anglo Indian and Christian community rep is often done in Hindi film, and how this film INSISTS on seeing this as a community. I applaud that. It’s needed.
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YES! This is a story told often from the other side, the ones who came to England, and I am glad to see acknowledgement that they fit/don’t fit just as much if they stay in India.
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And without you I would have no idea that Anglo-Indians still struggle for accpetance, because in their community they were ALL Anglo-Indian. The movie leaves me completely in the dark about any discrimination they face in their country.
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Isn’t that lovely? It’s giving the audience a glimpse of “see, it could be like this. We could celebrate Christmas and name our children after Queen Elizabeth and not obsess over who has lighter or darker skin, and everything would be fine.”
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I think it depends. I have a lot of Anglo Indian friends from Goa and Kerela and I think like many ethnic communities in the US (like Ukrainian village in Chicago, or Annandale and the Korean community in the DC suburbs) they have created space for them to live and thrive together. If you ask them in those communities if they don’t feel accepted, many might not agree with that statement because they love their community. However, unfortunately, as with all ethnic minorities, there is more that can and should be done to reduce discrimination on the larger scale.
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“Fred’s Hindi miraculously improved” I love that!!! 😂😂
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What was the word he was always trying to pronounce? I mean what did it MEAN? The subtitles spelled it in Hindi.
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It’s the Hindi words of “will be” but he kept using the wrong tense/pronouncing it in a way that is technically incorrect but a cliched way that the Anglo Indian community is depicted as pronouncing.
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What was the point where the movie hit its emotional high spot for you? The ending felt a bit flat to me
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I think when ARchie’s Dad tries to explain why they stayed, against all logic.
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Reggie and Dilly’s conversation after the truth-and-dare, Veronica and Betty talking to each other about Archie, and the final Archie’s song juxtaposed with Gomes finding the new signatures.
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Yes!!! Exactly all of these for me too!
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Christmas Day – Betty and VEronica telling eachother everything.
But I was super happy at the ending. When I saw it earlier the almost 9 year old and I were dancing around the room at the end. He really liked it.
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Yes I keep forgetting I am not the target demographic for this film 😛
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Thanks for the watchalong Margaret and everyone. I couldn’t have watched this on my own truly….
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That was lovely! And pleasent and makes me want to research Anglo-Indians and hope Agastya stops acting and goes back tot he tractor factory.
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Love it lol
One can hope lol
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Did you think he was bad? I’ll have to go back and read the eary comments (early as in the first hour and 15 minutes…)
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Something that I noticed in the marketing for this film only now, and regrettably didn’t pay a lot of attention to earlier – the film had a tie up with Bombay Sweet Shop (a fusion confection company that makes fusion versions of popular Indian sweets) for Christmas, and the inspiration for the sweets were definitely Anglo-Indian desserts! I saw “Dilton Nana’s Coconut Ice”, “Betty’s Choco Plum Cake Balls”, “Ethel’s Spiced Guava Cheese Barfi” etc. Plum cake, guava cheese, coconut ice and marzipan treats are v popular esp in Goa and the Mumbai Catholic communities!
In hindsight I really love
how much Zoya and team committed to making this a specifically Anglo Indian period piece!!
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