National Treasure vs. Chidhambara Ragasiyam

It is almost close to a year since I have been to a theatre to watch a movie. Ok, I did watch Sivaji in Frankfurt; but watching a Rajini movie with drunk Germans, struggling to follow the plot line AND translate at the same time took away all the fun. So, when my friends surprised me by calling me for the new Nicholas Cage movie "National Treasure : Book of secrets", I was damn excited,
(a) 'cos I was meeting ALL my friends together after a long time
(b) IMDB gave the movie a 6.8/10 (which is pretty good)

So, after beating the ever-increasing OMR traffic & flying over Gemini Bridge like Superman (:P), we landed at Sathyam theatres 15 minutes late & the punk at the door refused to let us in!! What an insult :D After a LOT of shouting & threatening bad publicity, we were let in!! Anyway, let's get to the movie.

The movie is passable. It is not anything great! The plotline is very predictable & downright easy at times. Here's the plot synopsis from IMDB (I don't have the patience to review the movie)

While Ben is presenting new information about John Wilkes Booth and the 18 pages missing from Booth's diary, one man stands up and presents a missing page of John Wilkes Booth's diary. Thomas Gates, Ben's great-grandfather, is mentioned in the page. It shows that Ben's great-grandfather could have been involved with Abraham Lincoln's murder. When doing more research, the conspiracy takes Ben, Abigail, and Riley to Buckingham Palace (which they break into). It takes them to a book in the White House (which they break into also) and they even steal a page from the book. But in order to see more from the book, their choice is either get elected president or kidnap the President of the United States. Which do they choose? It's obvious. The conspiracy then crosses to Mount Rushmore and they even mention the JFK conspiracy. Can Ben clear his family's name? Or will his family be linked to the murder of Abraham Lincoln?

Sounds exciting? Well, its on the same wavelength as some of our Tamil movies or serials!!! It is that boring! So, in the intermission, we decided to create a story of our own. "Chidambara Ragasiyam" starring our very own Captain Vijayakanth! :D

Here 's the plot synopsis!

While Captain is presenting new information about a well known criminal and the 18 pages missing from the evening edition of Mangayar Malar released when the criminal killed our President, one man stands up and presents a missing page of Mangayar Malar. Our Captain's great-grandfather, is mentioned in the page. It shows that Captain's great-grandfather could have been involved with the President's murder. When doing more research, the conspiracy takes Captain, Mumtaz, and Jimmy (Captain's dog) to Buckingham Canal (also known as Cooum in chennai). It takes them to a book in the Rippon's building and they even steal a page from Kungumam Deepavali Special edition. But in order to see more from the book, their choice is either get elected president or kidnap the President of India, namma Vadivelu Sir. Which do they choose? It's obvious. They kidnap Vadivelu who leads them to Nayar's tea shop on Ranganathan street & they find the missing pages of Mangayar Malar!! Jimmy leads them on a hunt through Pondy Bazaar and they finally find the hidden treasure in Kumaran Silks!!! And Captain clears the name of his ancestor :P

Our story made a lot more sense. It had emotion, a top cast, Jimmy the mutt and 6 songs. T Rajendhar also makes a special appearance as Captain's father. What more could you ask for?? Chidambara Ragasiyam to the Oscar's I say!!