I'm going to start with the positives - set/costume design and music. Although similar set designs have been done many times in Hollywood, it was refreshing to see the quant town of Riverdale reimagined to fit into India. Although it felt like a caricature at times, I think the team and location scouts have done a great job for the most part. The musical numbers are interesting and they served the purpose of a musical themed story and interweaved with the plot well enough.
Now the not so great - story and acting. The story really shows nothing new. Capitalistic tendencies destroying small neighborhoods is not a new concept and I felt it took a very long time for the actual story arc to start. The inciting incident for the students to save the park was put way too far along in the plot line and a big part of the story was given to the repetitive romance love triangle between the three main characters, with no real motive, while not giving the other characters an interesting enough story arc. There could have been much more explorations in the C-story and D-story (such as the convo between Reggie and Dilton) and dig more into the raw human emotions but the whole plot seemed to barely graze a personal connection with the audience. As for the acting, the three main actors often fall flat in developing their 3 way love triangle. I felt Kushi Kapoor missing the mark and just delivering the lines plainly while Suhana was a little better poised. However the writing as a whole was not that great to develop these characters for the actors in the first place and make them connect with the audience. Not what I would have expected from Zoya Akthar, who has been splendid in showing character arcs and character growth throughout her previous films.
The remaining members of the cast did great and props to the crew for their work and trying to do something different. Writing though was off the mark this time.
Now the not so great - story and acting. The story really shows nothing new. Capitalistic tendencies destroying small neighborhoods is not a new concept and I felt it took a very long time for the actual story arc to start. The inciting incident for the students to save the park was put way too far along in the plot line and a big part of the story was given to the repetitive romance love triangle between the three main characters, with no real motive, while not giving the other characters an interesting enough story arc. There could have been much more explorations in the C-story and D-story (such as the convo between Reggie and Dilton) and dig more into the raw human emotions but the whole plot seemed to barely graze a personal connection with the audience. As for the acting, the three main actors often fall flat in developing their 3 way love triangle. I felt Kushi Kapoor missing the mark and just delivering the lines plainly while Suhana was a little better poised. However the writing as a whole was not that great to develop these characters for the actors in the first place and make them connect with the audience. Not what I would have expected from Zoya Akthar, who has been splendid in showing character arcs and character growth throughout her previous films.
The remaining members of the cast did great and props to the crew for their work and trying to do something different. Writing though was off the mark this time.