The Xposé (2014)

A Masterpiece!

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

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.

DISCLAIMER! CONTAINS SPOILER First things first. if you are going to go watch it for pure fun then this movie is alright but if you are going out to get some real action, you'd rather go for something else. 'The Xpose' is set in the 70's time of bollywood where a renowned celebrity dies. This death is first considered a suicide but it is later found out that it is a murder. There are a host of great(rather hilarious) dialogues in the film. the cinematography is quite good but the story is boring. the first half of the film is really really slow(trust me, it was a struggle for survival). the second half wound it up quite alright and was a complement in comparison to the first half. the dialogues were pretty neat but the character of the protagonist was really hard to digest. another thing i wished to tell the readers is that if you are going to watch honey singh act, please do not do so because he was better off rapping. the movie was quite OK but if you are a real movie lover, i suggest you do not go watch it. rating-*

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

Pros: 1) Its Himesh's acting! he was just superb in the movie! the attitude he had shown in the movie is fantastic! I must say HR is growing as an actor from movie to movie, here he is a fully established actor! outstanding performance!2) Another major highlight is the dialogues, Written by Bunty Rathore, I just loved each of them.3)Music: its well known fact that music is massive hit!4)Direction and Screenplay: Ananth Mahadevan has proved once again that he is a fabulous director, loved the way each scene unfolds and how each scene is planned.5)Production value: Its great! with limited budget they had shot such a grand looking movie.Cons: Climax: Yes! in a Who done it kind of movie climax has to be strong,but the way they reveal the murder is not that interesting, you just don't have enough time to think who is murderer, the twist at the end is good, but the way they reveal,could have been better.Special Mention: Yo Yo Honey Singh acted very well too! he has very short roll, but enjoyed watching him, for every scene Honey comes in there will be a huge round of cheers and applause in the hall, this just shows his mammoth fan following. Zoya Afroz and Sonali they are just good! casting is very fine.