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 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.

'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.

I know the movie doesn't deserve one star out of 10. But that is the least I can give. 'Awful', the only word that can describe this movie. I don't know what glamour was the director trying to pull off. The movie was just an instrument for Himesh Reshamiyya to propound his songs. Yeah, and the songs too! I don't know why people loved the songs. They were just remakes of the previous super hit songs. I should have watched the election results today which were undoubtedly much more interesting than this crap movie. But my friends dragged me to watch it. And now they are regretting too. Speaking of acting, actor is good at his place and singer is best at his place. Himesh should never think of becoming an actor. He is not at all a star material.

Don't trust those reviews with 1/10 rating. They are just jealous of Himesh's success. Also don't trust those 10/10 ratings. Those guys are just die hard fans of Himesh. The film was actually not great, neither bad. It was above average. Story-4/5 Direction-4/5 Acting-3.5/5 Songs-5/5(Himesh is the music director. So songs will obviously be good.) Dialogues-5/5(They were actually good) One thing I didn't like was that acting was a bit abrupt. The film could be extended a bit. They should have shown some investigations. My final verdict - 3.5/5 Would love to watch the sequel though.