The Xposé (2014)

THE XPOSE begins exactly like a 60's film with a song in the titles and then a voice-over introducing the cast cast with some interesting one liners. Next it straight takes you on to a revival journey into the Golden Era, revealing few dark secrets of the industry pointing towards some known names and therefore fails to give you anything in the name of a murder mystery till intermission.The film returns back to its actual theme in the second half dealing with the various suspects, but here too we have another detailed reference of a major 70s hit which flopped initially. The narration manages to keep you engaged in its final 20 minutes when the pace picks up and the revelations are made. But again a very weird & hilarious way to point out the murderer (by simply staring at them) ruins the minimal impact generated quite cruelly. The director tries to justify its basic genre forcefully, with another twist in the end. Yet the film simply cannot be rated as any highly focused, intelligent crime mystery, all together.An intense crime drama all depends upon how the director conceives his individual characters and their mutual relationships on the screen skillfully. However that's exactly where THE XPOSE falters badly since the script fails to justify any particular character, their various affairs, allegations and the hidden jealousy arising from the flops or hits. The culmination sequences start happening too easily without any major explanations provided, taking away all the charm. Further the well promoted but surprisingly small appearances of stars like Yo Yo Honey Singh and Irrfan Khan turn out to be mere 'publicity cheats' played by the makers to bring in some added footfall. In its technical department, the background score successfully manages to keep the spirit alive and the DOP effectively gives a glossy look to the film as required. Musically, once again Himesh has more than one melodious track with some fine lyrics in it like "Sheeshe Ka Samunder" & "Dard Dilon Ke Kam Ho Jaatey". Honey Singh shines in his part of the song in "Hai Apna Dil To Awaara" and here I would certainly like to compliment Himesh for his catchy, selective and minimal arrangements which really sound quite soothing, away from all the overstuffed noise served as music.However in the performance section, Himesh looks too arrogant and stiff playing it over confidently. Yo Yo is there for only a few sequences but handles them well carrying his own carefree persona as it is. Irrfan Khan plays a cameo of just two scenes and the leading ladies, Zoya Afroz & Sonali Raut strongly display their confidence in some good skin show. Ananth Narayan Mahadevan (the director) is fine playing the director in the film too. Nakul Vaid, Ashin Dhir play it well, whereas Adil Hussain, Rajesh Sharma & Jessy Randhawaremain wasted. In short THE XPOSE performs pretty badly as a murder mystery and can appeal only to the viewers who can easily relate with all the realistic events of the decades before the 90s as given below. 1. Himesh plays the famous actors RAAJ KUMAR, who was in reality a police office before joining the films, as shown in THE XPOSE too.2. It has a scene between Himesh & Nakul, which reportedly took place between Rajkumar & Govinda in probably JUNG BAAZ released in 1989.3. Sunil Dutt actually saved Nargis from the fire at a set and the instance is incorporated in a similar sequence here in THE XPOSE.4. One can see Parveen Babi emerging from the sea line, like the Bond Girl, played by Zoya Afroz in the film.5. You can easily recall Zeenat Aman in a transparent white saree, praying in a temple in Raj Kapoor's SATYAM SHIVAM SUNDARAM (1978), played by Sonali Raut in the film.6. It depicts the era when there were no personal vanity vans for the artists to vanish into. And everyone had to sit in the open under the big umbrellas surrounded by their personal staff.7. The time period when the main magazine was FILMFARE and the whole gossip trend was started by STARDUST in the 70s (with a famous woman editor).8. A sequence relives the scenario when the competitors used to buy tickets in advance only to sell them at a lower price through the black marketers, as a clever strategy to sabotage a potential film of the opponent released on the same day.9. The era of long cars, the Impalas.10. Two fictitious titles used in the film are 'Ujwal Nirmal Sheetal' and 'Reena Mera Naam' hinting towards SATYAM SHIVAM SUNDARAM & JOHNY MERA NAAM clearly. 11. A detailed sequence in the second half, indicates towards the death of Meena Kumari just after the release of PAKEEZAH turning it into a late HIT. The makers here show that the director of the film records a fake message in the voice of his dead heroine by a dubbing artist and uses that message to bring back the audiences in the theaters. However whether this was actually done or not, cannot be said.12. Irrfan Khan in his special appearance plays Alec D'Costa, a black marketer showcasing the truth that in those times, selling tickets in black was such a huge business that people used to make big houses out of it. Plus it was these "Blackiyas" only who were used by one producer against the other for sabotaging a particular film.Now reading the above references, you can sure enjoy the film more, recalling each and every incident as they come on the screen. But in case you are just interested in watching a thrilling murder mystery using your grey cells, then watch Vidhu Vinod Chopra's KHAMOSH (1985) instead. Because in THE XPOSE it seems the makers were more interested in the controversies than the murder mystery.

I sometimes am left amused with our audiences taste, I was shocked that XPOSE is a hit and now plans are up for XPOSE 2. The film is such a torture, It tries to be everything, a thriller, a musical.etc It is set in 1960s when as per our flop director Anant Mahadevan filmmakers only made films on sex and heroes were Angry Young Man(LOL). Ironically the best actors are given the shortest roles,Irrfan Khan and Adil Hussain. The film starts off with a heroine thrown from a terrace(which is repeated many times), then we are introduced to several characters, One being Himesh Reshammiya who reminded me of Dev Anand, being in every frame, doing all the tasks.He starts off being an inspector(with a walk that doesn't suit an inspector), then he shoots a minister in an unintentional hilarious scene, then he becomes a south superstar and finally a Hindi star who shows attitude and dictates things and finally a detective.Then we have Yo Yo Honey Singh playing a singer and other stuff. The way the mystery is solved will make you start loving TV Series CID if you hate it. All looks so stupid and hilarious. Direction by Anant Mahadevan is terrible Music is decent but the songs hardly look like songs of 60s, with stupid lyrics like Ice Cream Khaungi.Himesh Reshammiya lost weight and looks better but still has the same expressionless face in most scenes and an awful dialogue delivery,though he does show some improvement compared to his previous crap works yet he has a long way to go Yo Yo Honey Singh annoys in his debut, his dialogue delivery is horrible and he also gets a raw deal and is left to the backseat at many times Both Sonali Rout and Zoya Afroz are non actors Nakul Vaid is decent in his role, Anant Mahadevan is okay Rajesh Sharma, Dayashankar Pandey do their roles well Adil Hussain and Irrfan Khan are wasted in cameos.

This is a pathetic movie (if considered a movie at all) with 3 layers of murders of the same person (? I mean really ! :-o). As lead Himesh's (pretending to be Rajinikanth -- feeling meh. Disclaimer: No offense; I am not saying Himesh is worse than Rajinikanth) acting is pathetic; his dialog delivery is so bad that becomes hilarious (!!^&$#@!*&^). Dialogues are over exaggerated, meaningless, and you feel like leaving the theater instantly. All the other actors/actresses and Yo Yo Honey Singh only add patheticity to the entire plot and story; making the whole film unbearable. God help those (including me) who watch this movie. I am still in trauma since I watched the movie.

The perfect whodunit is one which has you biting your nails in anticipation and trying to figure who the culprit is and all the while trying to spot the red herrings and being fooled by the author (in case of a book) into suspecting the wrong guy or gal. XPOSE looks like it has been written by someone (Himesh Reshmaiya to be precise) who thinks of a premise and then does not know how to end it and like a kindergarten kid with his mouth full of cookies trying putting the blame on some one in the last minute-Like the butler did it.The good thing going for this movie is the 60's campy style and music of the bygone era and the larger than life personalities that stars had which made them believe that they were gods and goddesses.The movie starts with a caption claiming that the incidents shown are based on facts,and this is where we start guessing who's who.The movie focuses on a the rise of two starlets Zara (Sonali Raut) clearly inspired by Zeenath Aman and Chandini (Zoya Afroz), based on Parveen Babi –though neither of them belonged to the 60's. Zara has no qualms of reaching the top, she is prepared to sleep her way to the top and Chandini is miss goody shoes who prefers to remain a virgin and spites quite a few makers.Both the girls land in two controversial films, Zara is offered UJWAL NIRMAL SHEETAL (only a blind man can miss the obvious reference to Satyam Shivam Sundaram) which also marks the Hindi debut of South Super Star Ravi Kumar (Himesh Reshmaiya) a character based on Rajinikanth (again not a 60;s star) but reminds you mostly of Rajkumar and Sunil Dutt. Chandini decides to expose to spite her boyfriend and stars in a movie titled "REENA MERA NAAM" (could be Chetna which starred Rehana Sultana).Both movies release on the same day, UNS flops and RMN becomes a hit, but Zara bags the filmfare award for UNS and she is promptly thrown off a roof of hotel to her death on the same night.Chandini and Zara have a cat fight over Ravi kumar on the same day and Chandini's boyfriend becomes an obvious suspect and is nailed.Ravi Kumar who is obviously in love with Chandini decides to save his beloved's love and unravels the mystery before a dumb judge interrupting the court proceedings.Himesh Reshmaiya is outstanding (I thought I never would be able to say this) as Ravi Kumar, his mannerisms and dialogues are to a T. He pokes fun at himself in a matter of fact way and elevates the thick headed character and half way through the film we can actually see who the character is based on.Zoya Afroz has those innocent bubbly looks of Poonam Dhillion (and her acting skills as well) looks good in the bikini act, and that's where we can stop the praise.The scene stealer is Sonali Raut in her see through Sari and venom spitting performance as Zoya. She plays the bad act well and is the only one with the best lines apart from Himesh Reshmaiya.Yo Yo Honey Singh has very little to do as a Music Director KD (obviously referencing RD Burman), but does have resembling character traits of Kishore Kumar too, He sleepwalks through the film. What the hell was Irrfan Khan doing in this? Don't ask, possibly even he does'nt know the answer.Music by Himesh Reshamaya is good-fitting the 60's like a glove, but the ice cream song seems to have been heavily borrowed from Micheal Jackson's Bad. Overlook that fact and you have a movie with good foot tapping music.Screenplay is tight but fades out towards the end, but Ananth Mahadevan's direction ensures that there is not a single dull moment in the film, though you are disappointed by the way the movie ends, you thank your stars that at least it did not bore you to death.Go for it if you love 60's style foot tappers and have nothing else to do.