"I want to do the imagining. I don't want to be the idea.".

When my kid informed me he and his friends were going to see a Barbie movie, I couldn't believe it. The stereotypical mother in me instantly responded. Seeing as how MI and IJ were running in parallel in theatres, I was taken aback and asked him why a group of boys would be interested in seeing Barbie. Will there be any girls there? I'm guessing I probably sounded kind of dorky in his ears. His response, though, was typical of his generation:This is a spoof and not a movie aimed at just girls, Mom. But, like any mother, I made arrangements to watch the movie myself before he did. Also, the other reason was that as a kid, I had eight dolls, and the majority of my time went into playing with them and building stories. And only Barbie was one of those dolls whose identity was recognised consistently over the globe. Barbie therefore represents the shared imagination of all kids who play with it across the world.

It was the right decision to see this film because otherwise I would not have realised what a brilliant move it was for the brand to reach out to younger consumers. Barbie is a great gimmick for a rebranding campaign to appeal to Generation Z, which places an emphasis on pragmatics.

We all know that Barbie has a checkered history. Barbie's version as a math-averse doll was not received well. Barbie, packaged with a "don't eat" diet handbook, protested. Someone who seems black on the exterior but is really white on the inside was being mocked by Oreao's crazy cookie Barbie. The creepiest thing was pregnant Barbie with babies in her belly, and the oddest thing was when Barbie went through puberty. Hijab Barbie and Virus Barbie both sparked new debates. Parents were largely concerned about the FBI tip of a security threat regarding the Video Girl Barbie.

Most criticised among Gen Z was Barbie's excessively slender body, which has been an undesirable role model for women. It precisely articulates the enormous problem of existential crises that the outside world has manufactured and which individuals have mindlessly embraced.

To begin with, the film explored the same themes, including the existential difficulties brought on by the persistence of patriarchy and Barbie stereotypes. The story starts with Barbie living a happy life in Barbieland, but she notices that she is developing human consciousness. To find answers, she has to travel to the real world in order to restore normality. As she and Ken enter the real world, Barbie is overwhelmed to see the many ways in which women are treated as objects and devalued. Multiple sets of eyes scrutinise all of their actions. Both Barbie and Ken's masculine awakenings also go through existential crises. Later in the movie, with Ken's changed behaviour after going to the real world, Barbie's attempt to appease Ken's manly ego by playing a weakling is satire. However, the much-touted "gender war" is seen humorously despite the fact that it still exists, whether people accept it or not.

Now, coming to the technical part of the film, the Barbie-land segment was overdone. The transition from Barbie Land to the actual world was also too long; a crisp cut here, as in Jumanji, would have made more sense. So the movie has a sluggish start, but it picks up speed and becomes engaging as time goes on. The humour was really cliched and cheap, so that wasn't great.

Both Margot's and Ryan's performances were excellent. While the actors were all spot-on, the film's direction let it down by not keeping the action moving at a good clip and by delivering a confusing muddle of a plot and a message that left viewers with no clear conclusions. A more succinct conclusion would have been fantastic. Though I did like the part at the end where, at the workplace, Barbie prefers Flat Sandals over heels, I was relating all this to my pageant life, where wearing a minimum of 3.5 inches of heels was mandatory before stepping out of your room in public. In the movie, Barbie leaves the fake world behind.

To end with my favourite line by Barbie's creator, Ruth Handler, played by Rhea Perlman: "Humans have only one ending. Ideas live for ever." The movie is a good introduction to the world of dolls for those who haven't seen anything like it before. It is a case study in itself, showing how the power of sentiment is a driving force in the doll industry. After a year of record sales during the epidemic, last year saw a dip, so it's easy to see why Mattel is counting on the new Barbie film to reverse the trend by syncing up with generation Z's pragmatic thinking.