The Xpose

I give this film a 1 as I know HR did not concept this as a spoof film. But the acting, the editing, the dialogue are all so bad that it works as a spoof of a bunch of mostly talentless actors working on a vanity project.

A wooden doll emotes better than Himesh. His character is a narcissistic sociopath but hey, it works for the non-multiplex audiences whom the film targets. And he is no Rajnikanth in delivering masala dialogues.

I think the film would have worked better if Himesh approached this as a spoof film and played the role over the top, with a wink-wink, nudge-nudge to the audience.

Pro tip : Don't pay money to watch the film. You'll get more fun with your cash if you burn it and watch the flames.

The girl is shown falling off the palace terrace four times throughout the film. Not to strain on how ridiculous is what happens after she falls, I will explain what went wrong with Reshammiya's latest venture cooked up to demean himself.

Starting off with an introduction of all the characters, the writer talks about many things at once: 60s' cinema, sex symbols, actresses, parties, competition between actors & directors, etc.. The plot follows the investigation of a girl's murder who falls from a terrace. The funny thing is that there is no detective/police involved in the investigation. I wonder if the viewer is the police here. Finally after talking loads of things about Reshammiya's character and the film fraternity, the story hangs to the night of the incident.

Himesh has a wooden face & it is high time he should accept it. Donning smart tux and suits won't help you. He can't act, cannot bring out expressions, I don't understand why he doesn't stick to music. Honey Singh was average. The 2 female débutantes are sex props; all they do is expose, girl-fight, envy and sleep around with male characters or talk about it. The dialogs are hopeless and inappropriate; I found 1 or 2 witty, though. The anachronistic setup is another example of lack of imagination. The whole film is supposed to happen in 1967 Bombay but looks nothing like it.

The second half advances to make it look like a whodunit but the unnecessary use of twists just nullifies the work. The climax scene at the court is the most ridiculous setup I have seen in a Bollywood film where a witness uses his eyes to detect the killer. Ah, the folly!

The story is so bad and ill-imagined, I start to wonder what all films were sampled to make this piece of extraordinary crass. The music is okay but what was the score of 1980's The Shining doing here! Supporting cast is nothing much to talk about and why would Ananth Mahadevan act in this film is beyond my understanding. But then again, why would he collaborate with Himesh and DIRECT the film for his script is just against the whole race of humanity.

BOTTOM LINE: Nothing much to experience here, except maybe the bitching, make-believe Tinseltown and few foreplay sequences. It only shows what we already know.

Can be watched with a typical Indian family? YES

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.

'The Xpose' is an entertaining yet boring 'thriller', or as the makers only call it a thriller. Personally, the film I found very funny. Especially the scenes where Himesh's character is being filmed, and he acts like he's a very big superstar. The film's story is decent, not too bad and not great either, but it's quite clichéd and predictable.

After watching the trailer, you can take a few guesses on who you think is the murderer in the end, and one of those guesses is probably right, but I won't reveal the character and spoil it for you. The performances in the film are not as good as they should be in my opinion. Himesh is decent, probably better than his previous few films. Honey isn't bad, the debutant girls aren't that good and the supporting characters of people such as Anant Mahadevan, Rajesh Sharma and Dayashankar Pandey amongst others are alright.

Actor Irrfan Khan is hardly even in the film, yet he's featured in the film's poster for some reason. He narrates some of the film (most of the first half) and also appears shortly in the first half, but doesn't really change the state of the film.

The ending is extremely disappointing, and after a good second-half you'd think and expect an interesting climax, but it happens to be the most predictable thing possible I'd say. Not going to spoil the ending, I will not add any more, just the fact that if you enjoy suspenseful thrillers then you will probably NOT enjoy this film, as it tries hard to be in that genre but doesn't really work in my opinion.

Also, I'd like to add that though the first half is more comedy, the second half is quite serious, and the second is probably the only suspenseful thing in the film. If you're bored, and looking for an entertaining (yet a film with an ending that will leave you disappointed and angry for why you wasted your time watching the whole film) movie then watch 'The Xpose' at your own risk.

Yes, I did go to watch a Himesh Reshammiya movie for the first time in my life. And the movie fulfilled all I wanted out of it, fultoo fun and jibe moments through over-the-top performances by most actors (Himesh leading the pack all the way!)

Also, the movie does surprise with some twists. When you think it's all over, it reveals some more layers over layers. Finding the 'real' killer isn't that easy after all. The plot is Agatha Christi-c, the premises 60's ka Bollywood. Ananth Mahadevan (director) succeeds in presenting this murder-mystery on-screen upto an extent.

Its out an out HR movie who reminds you of actor Late Raj Kumar as superstar Ravi Kumar with similar attitude, arrogance, self-obsession (talking of himself in third person). All this exudes oodles of unintended humour. His dhaansu dialogues (some of which make no sense) can send intellectuals to coma but those searching fun will have a gala time. His overcoats and jackets (esp the red one) can't be ignored (ROFL). Characters of Sonali Raut and Zoya Afroz are drawn as parallels to Zeenat Aman and Late Parveen Babi. So beaucoup de skin show (justifying film's title). Honey Singh also doesn't act but even then his mannerisms too invoke smiles! Contrastingly, ace actors like Irrfan, Rajesh Sharma and Adil Hussain do justice with their brief roles. Music (both songs and background) is quite peppy and catchy and some songs are quite melodious. Full marks to Himesh and Yo Yo for the same! In all, this 2-hr movie isn't meant for our grey matter but is still watchable (esp if watched with friends and fun-intent). My rating: **1/2