In today’s day and age, celebrities are very particular about their conduct especially while making public appearances. If the paparazzi for some reason are nowhere to be seen, the aam junta equipped with cell phones and tablets will be out there recording the celebrity’s moves and one inappropriate gesture from the star can lead them to be in the news for the wrong reasons. But there was a time when the media fraternity wasn’t so huge and news took time to travel. And the celebrities were reported to have openly made shocking statements and even beaten up one another, in full public view. The Xpose tells the tale of such an era. If the film was solely about film industry of that time and the rivalry prevalent, it might have made for a great film. Sadly, the writer(Himesh Reshammiya, Jainish Ejardar) added a murder mystery angle in the tale. And that’s where The Xpose fell like a pack of cards!
The story of the movie: The film is set in 1967-68. Ravi Kumar(Himesh Reshammiya) is an ex-cop-turned-superstar of the South who is all set to make waves in Bollywood with Subba Prasad’s(Ananth Narayan Mahadevan) Ujjwal Nirmal Sheetal. Subba signs Zara(Sonali Raut) in the film and presents her as Bollywood’s first sex symbol. Zara’s roommate at one point was Chandni(Zoya Afroz) who also bags a big film, Bobby Chadha’s(Ashwin Dhar) Reena Mera Naam. Incidentally, both films release on the same day and one of the films fails badly thanks to the sabotage done by the makers of the other film. At a post-awards mega bash, Zara falls from the roof and dies. Soon, it emerges that Zara is murdered.
The opening credits are funky while the beginning sequence, where the characters are introduced, are quite impressive actually. Himesh Reshammiya’s entry in the narrative does spoil things as he fails to look convincing. Also, the scene where he’s shown beating goons in a Southern film is embarrassing. Nevertheless, one still doesn’t mind as the goings-on make for an entertaining watch. Everything goes fine till the scene where Ujjwal Nirmal Sheetal and Reena Mera Naam release on the same day(though in between, there’s the Surroor track which is lovely but is badly incorporated in the film). But then comes the intermission point which comes up all of a sudden and fails to make sense.
Post-intermission, the party scene is engaging. And then the murder happens and from here, the film goes on a downhill. The courtroom sequence is disgusting and fails to look real in any respect. What’s more, a murder suspect is jailed despite being proven that he has not killed Zara! Moreover, the hotel where the party takes place resembles a palace and is next to the sea shore. One can easily make out that such structure never existed in the then Bombay and looks quite fake. Also, the direction is haphazard which further results in the film’s downfall.
Himesh Reshammiya puts in a lot of effort but just fails to look convincing as a reigning, arrogant superstar. He does entertain in the beginning portions when he’s shooting with Subba but one wishes that some other actor with a better screen presence had played the role. He is very bad in the sequence where he fights goons in Salman Khan-style and also, in the ‘Ice Cream’ song, he goes ‘pam pam pam’ that doesn’t seem cool from any angle. He surely can act well, as proved with Khiladi 786, and I hope he takes up such roles in future.
Both Sonali Raut and Zoya Afroz deserve praise. Both look beautiful and sexy and perform very well. Kenny Damania aka KD(Yo Yo Honey Singh) is better than Himesh and needs to polish his acting skills a bit more to be passed off as a good actor. Ananth Narayan Mahadevan gives a great performance. Ashwin Dhar is fine and raises laughs in the second half. Nakul Vaid(Virman Shah) leaves a mark. Adil Hussain is wasted and serves no purpose in the narrative. Jesse Randhawa(Shabnam Rai) doesn’t get any scope. Rajesh Sharma(Inspector Grover) is dependable as always. Same goes for Dayashankar Pandey(Naidu). Kanika Dang(D’Silva), Bharat Dabholkar(Desai), Naresh Suri(Mishra) and Kunal Thakur(Ronnie; Chandni’s co-star) do well. Irrfan Khan(Alec D’Costa) is dashing but one wonders why does a black ticket seller suddenly starts telling a tale(he’s the sutradhar).
Himesh Reshammiya’s music is great and one of the reasons why the film has been talked about. Ice Cream and Catch Me If You Can are peppy and well picturised. Dard Dilo Ke, Surroor and Hai Apna Dil Toh Awara are beautiful compositions but not well shot or incorporated in the film. Background score(Himesh Reshammiya, Sanjoy Salil Chowdhury) is apt. Production design and costumes don’t seem authentic and doesn’t always have the 60s feel. Himesh Reshammiya and Jainish Ejardar’s story and screenplay is fine, though they could have done away with the murder and instead come up with a story on film industry of the 60s and it’s dark secrets. Still, it could have been made into a fine film but Ananth Narayan Mahadevan’s direction fails to do so. Several scenes don’t look convincing and are also bewildering. For instance, why does Ravi Kumar go to Paris in the second half? Why didn’t Ravi and Chandni confess their love to each other? There wasn’t any strong reason to explain why they didn’t reveal their feelings to each other. And as mentioned above, why does a suspect who hasn’t been involved in the murder is jailed?! To top it all, the execution is haphazard, especially in the second half when the plot gets shaky. Also, it isn’t difficult to guess the murderer. Instead, one can guess his identity before the intermission itself.
On the whole, The Xpose could have been another The Dirty Picture, especially if the makers had solely concentrated on the scandalous incidents of the 60s Bollywood. Instead, they added a flawed murder mystery, included inexplicable and needless developments in the script and shot sequences that fail to look convincing. Himesh Reshammiya is a miscast, Yo Yo Honey Singh is okay but the two girls show promise. Watch the film if Godzilla doesn’t interest you or if you are curious about the film, like I was. Or else, give this film a royal miss!