National treasure series are like movie equivalent of a Dan Brown novel from the Robert Langdon series. The first 2 parts that came out as movies, starring Nicholas cage, have their own fan base. It dwells majorly into symbolism and generous dollops of fiction mixed with real world items and facts. The first part dealt with the clues hidden on the original copy of the American constitution and the second part covered various other historical artefacts related to America, in getting the name of the Gates family cleared off one Abe Lincoln’s assassination. The places where the quest takes them and the way in which they are resolved often lead to edge of the seat thrill situations. The movie scripts of both the editions would’ve made bestseller novels as well on the thriller genre. This edition of National treasure is typically made for OTT and the ten-part series is again has its roots in America, only bit wider this time at the continent level. There is a supposedly pan American treasure, an amalgamation of wealth from Aztec, Inca and Mayan dynasties, that were saved by a secret organization called “Daughters of the plume”, from the evil invading conquistadors, the location of which is guarded by generations of women and their supporting kins. There is obviously another group that wants to break open this secret and possibly destroy the treasure as well for reasons known only to them. Some characters from the movie setup make into this drama series as well, with the FBI agent shown investigating the break-in’s and handling the case in the first 2 parts, being the seed character in this series, whose research and notes help the crack team to solve the puzzles related to the treasure. There is a latino girl character who is the hero of this series, accompanied by her African-American girl friend, Chinese origin boy friend and a white guy from England. They’ve left nothing to chances with respect to color code of the casting. The ease with which this group solves centuries old supposedly unbreakable secrets and puzzles makes one wonder, if the real reason why those puzzles survived all along could’ve been due to sheer laziness of the villain group!!! They crack the puzzles on the fly and finally manage to save the treasure as well. There are lot of heavy inspirations from Indiana jones series and other such adventure thrillers. To be fair, till the climax some of the artwork done and the cleverness behind the clues were decent enough. The finale episode being the worst of the lot where probably budget might have constrained them from going big band on the sets and structures or possibly paucity of the script. Either way, the ten part series is a breeze and thriller buffs may enjoy.
What makes a movie tick?? If anyone has a sureshot answer to this question every movie getting released would be a Superhit isnt it. To me whether a movie goes on to become a hit or not..if you are able to relate to it..that itself is a victory for that creator. Dasvidaniya is one such movie. It got released quite sometime back and sank without a trace for obvious reasons. Happened to watch it today and here is the review :) This movie maynot be everybody's cup of tea considering that it moves at a slow pace and doesnt have feet tapping melodies or any peppy songs. Nor does it have slap stick comedy scenes which might draw repeat audience. This is one movie best watched in DVD..at your own leisure..just soaking in its pace and relishing just the same. If its Nasseruddin shah with Vaswani 3 decades back..Vinay Pathak and Ranbir Shourie are no less a pair to match wits with them. Add in the ever dependable Rajat Kapoor you've a formidable cast. Throw in a decent script and lo..yo...
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Very impressed at the diversity of films that you watch. If I am not mistaken, the last one was something called Mukundan Unni and Associates !