Spider-man: Across the Spider-verse review: Sensational film with a tasteful Indian twist

Miles follows Ghost into a portal that lands them in Mumbattan, a place whose Spiderman is called Pavitr Prabhakar - voiced in the Hindi version by cricketer Shubman Gill. (Image via Twitter/DisneyAPromos)

In a sequence from Spider-man: Across the Spider-verse, a tender moment sees Miles open up to his mother after missing out on his father’s rooftop promotion party. He whines, squirms and almost spills the secret before realizing that maybe it is in the interest of the universe – the Spider-verse – for her to not know. “Go,” she quietly affirms at the end of a non-conversation, as if that hesitation has still managed to relay a message of sorts. We’ve seen this moment recreated across countless iterations of the beloved character. Especially in a spin-off where not one but countless Spider-mans exist, it ought to have been past its run-by date. And yet, this heady, frantic creation continues to contradict convention. The sequel to the breakthrough first film is an audacious, sensory blast of colour and vigour that manages to somehow, also retain an emotional core. To add to all that, there is in this particular instalment featuring dizzy, intra-universe travel, a tasteful pit-stop in Mumbattan, with our very own desi Spiderman – Pavitr Prabhakar.

Watch the new TV spot: pic.twitter.com/M5iuLh26ER

— Disney Animation Promos (@DisneyAPromos) May 13, 2023

The film begins with the Ghost (Hailey Steinfeld) dealing with her own parental battles against her father, a policeman, chasing the crusader he believes is responsible for the death of Peter Parker. Ghost’s scuffle with a monster is broken by ‘Spideys’ who travel through portals to assist their fellow kind. She is brought in to join a secret covenant, the details of which spill into the story after she re-acquaints with Miles (Shameik Moore). The two are obviously in love, with Miles being more than halfway over the bridge to her. A villain, Spots, travels through dimensions to attack Miles’ city. He is, as it turns out, a ghost from the hero’s past. Part-nefarious, part-clown, this is a villain dripped and dried in the cotton-wool imagination of a franchise that continues to believe that scarier demons must be fought at home. To an extent, this franchise almost justifies its neo-liberal positioning.

After Miles follows Ghost into a portal, the two end up in Mumbattan (a riff on Mumbai), a place whose Spiderman is called Pavitr Prabhakar (voiced in the Hindi version by cricketer Shubman Gill). The creators behind this franchise of intoxicatingly wild ideas, visceral palettes and swatches that play with depth and detail, manage to get that rare balance between self-deprecating humour and cultural allegory. There is a joke about a nuclear family of four riding a scooter, but there is also Prabhakar (voiced by Karan Soni) correcting Miles’ pronouncements of Chai Tea as being ‘Tea Tea’ and Naan Bread being the equivalent of saying Bread Bread. The visuals scream chawls and high-rises mixed in the batter of rifling traffic noises and indistinct classical instruments. There is also, a nuclear collider thrown into the mixer, merging that colonial view of the country with the evolutionary affirmation of something beyond the screwball landscape being fermented behind the walls. Safe to say, it’s a portrayal done tastefully and is possibly the film’s funniest patch.

(Poster via Twitter/Marvel)

Miles’ acquaintance with the Headquarter of the Spider-verse, is a bittersweet epiphany. It lays down for him the law of intra-dimensional lands in a way that sweeps the rug from underneath his naïve self. There is a cruel balance to all of this maniacal world-switching; a thread of sobering consistency rooted in anguish and tragedy. It has been the one common anchor of all Spider-man films, and rather poetically, the franchise built around the concept of studying its own existence, uses it as a point of inquiry. It also, sort of impresses, the burden of staying true to formats and source material. There is even a scene of a Spider-man, visiting another Spidey (apparently a psychiatrist) to talk about the demise of, the counsellor says, “let me guess, Uncle Ben”. It’s hilarious, cheeky and somewhat self-fulfilling for a film universe that is brave enough to query its own limits.

More than anything else, Spider-man: Across the Spider-verse is a visual accomplishment. Merging themes, characters, entire worlds into one kaleidoscopic mix of whirring movement, witty dialogue and emotional resonance, this film doesn’t hold back. There are lego worlds, dinosaur Spidermans, memes, comic book strips and even an anti-establishment Spidey who decides to eventually quit the multiverse as a sign of protest. It might feel like a feverish mix of slick animation and sharp editorial flourishes, but the franchise remains true to its adolescent considerations. Ultimately Miles must choose between the verse and his family. A question we will witness predictable answers to in the third instalment. The means to that end, however, you can safely assume will be in the vein of bewitching and baffling. So much so, this second instalment merits multiple viewings, not for our Mumbaikar Spidey alone, but also for the instinctually original creation this franchise has become. It’s a fact that has been said before, and begs reiterating. This might be Marvel’s diamond in a very long, tedious and familiar stretch of the rough.