The Xpose Movie Reviews

To explore the dark side of Bollywood in the 60s when stardom had a different definition and many were disillusioned about it, one needs to dig in really deep. The charming era of vintage cars, beautiful sets, glamour, dirty desires and unique mannerisms of people with a larger-than-life image, is a chapter you only open if you have an honest intention to project it. If not, one needs to stay away from it.

So who said the world of the makebelieve had to follow any rules? Yup, there is no business like show business. This whodunit means business.The suspense drama is bright, bouncy,believable and entertaining.

THE XPOSE is a decently-crafted vintage musical-thriller that keeps you guessing about the identity of the murderer all through. An entertaining outing for fans of atypical Bollywood-style murder mysteries.

It’s pacy but the plot unravels stylishly, not intelligently (some suspects don’t have a clear motive for murder). Sonali is stunning and impressive, Zoya makes a pretty picture and Yo Yo is best when he’s grooving. Himesh slips well into his character, with quirkiness and confidence. This is far from a mind-bending thriller, but a decent effort which has some good ‘ol masala to keep you entertained.

Firstly it is a Himesh Bhai’s film. “Suroor” makes a comeback. The movie is good fun when you watch it with your buddies. You will nudge each other and make silly comments about the dialogues. This is a movie for the weekend. All you have to do is get your tickets, leave your brain behind and let the silliness take you over.

The Xpose Movie Review: 2/5 Stars. What’s Good: The 60s extravaganza and the sets created by the production desi...

If they had maintained the tone, ‘The Xpose’ would have been a hoot. But songs get stuffed in, a love angle slows things, and it gets stuck in cop stations and courts. They should have just kept the cheese thick. Here’s a sampler, from early in the film. A producer tells an aspirant : “na dance na expression na pose, sirf xpose!”. Classic. Nothing more would have been needed.

Unable to stay true to its genre, The Expose ends up being Himesh’s attempt at having another shot of being an actor, an effort that falters right from the start.about playing up that card.

The movie is slick in the way it is executed; stylish with good settings. The music also has a distinct flavour of the bygone era and is a mixture of old tunes, layered with new sounds. Dhan te te…!!! Another ‘X’ factor is the dialogue, designed to reflect the state of the hero of the film – Himesh. Even though the joke is on him, Himesh delivers the lines with an ‘innocent-matter-of-fact-charm’.

In case you’re looking for plain entertainment, this extravagant endeavour won’t disapppoint. So who do you want to see the film for? Himesh or Honey? The choice is entirely yours.

Honey Singh proves to be mildly competent, thereby not fitting into the scheme. Still, this is nothing that can’t be overcome with a rowdy gang of friends and pre-screening tequila shots. 3 stars for the entertainment. Note that the final rating is the Arithmetic Mean-still two more than the number of stars in the film.

…an average film which would die a silent death majorly because of a poor screenplay despite of having a decent script.

You can watch the film for the visual chutzpah, a sprinkling of interesting behind-the-scenes moments, and the intermittent unintentional laugh. But honestly, enduring the rest of the film for that, is a stretch.

Where the film fails spectacularly is in its inability to come together as either an unapologetic camp-fest or serious murder mystery, trying to walk the fine line unsuccessfully. As a movie set against the backdrop of the Hindi film industry, it’s neither outrageous (Om Shaanti Om), nor sardonic (Luck By Chance), and definitely not cheesy enough (The Dirty Picture).

Go watch it if you must, though we think the television news channels are offering better entertainment this weekend. One of the hilarious things about the film are its dialogues. Unintentionally funny and delivered with all-seriousness, they make up for the lack of script and acting by the leads.

The Xpose is HR’s way of saying he can do everything that Salman Khan, the man who gave him his big break, can do. With little merit in the film, we’re more interested in seeing the featurette on the making of the film.

The only good thing about the film is SURPRISINGLY, Himesh Reshammiya (Awww!!) and nothing else. If you readers are satisfied with this review why waste your hard earned money? That sums up The Xpose!

Good films require innovation; bad ones are usually recipe-based. And the really terrible ones? Those are recipes gone horribly wrong. What the makers of The Xposé will have you believe is cinema is actually punch lines, and lots (and by lots, we mean nearly a dozen) of songs roughly chopped up and mashed together. Add a poker-faced, nasal-toned lead actor, and you have what can only be a Himesh Reshammiya creation.

Saddled with glaring plot holes, caricaturish supporting cast, unintentionally funny punchlines, and Himesh Reshammiya, The Xpose is like Gunda, with better production values

The ladies are purely used for decorative purposes in the film and the dialogues are cringe worthy, sample this one – “…na dance na expression na pose, sirf expose”. For those wondering about the ‘expose’ element let’s say the IPL cheerleaders have much more skin to show. Xpose yourself to this travesty at your risk.

I must say The Xpose is a complete paisa-vasool project. It was one of the rarest of its kind – the so bad that it’s fantastic! I suggest go and watch it alone. You might make some new friends in the theater while laughing hollow at the film. A ticket is after all really inexpensive in comparison to new friendships!

In a nutshell, The Xpose is nothing like the suspense films made in the ’60s. The dialogues of the film is the only saving grace which are available on YouTube too, so why waste money in theatres? Himesh has done a decent job, though there is still much scope of improvement. Overall don’t sulk if you miss the film. It’s not worth it.

The performances are as perfunctory as they can get. To rub salt into the wound, you have Irrfan Khan doing a voiceover. The setting of the 70s doesn’t work at all. The songs, well has either, Yo Yo Honey Singh or Himesh Reshammiya as their singer. So, there’s no looking for respite there. The sliver lining is – it is a short film.

The Xposé has exposed a sad truth from our film industry. We have the ability to make really bad movies.

It’s a stupid film that knows it’s a stupid film and celebrates it, without being melodramatic or overlong (it runs for just under two hours). Come to think of it, that’s a lot like every Yo Yo Honey Singh song ever.

The Xposé is an engaging suspense thriller with hit music and excellent dialogues as the plus points. It will do fair business but it has an extraneous factor working against it and that is that it has a limited window of just one week to do business because it will face a major opposition in the form of the eagerly-awaited film, Heropanti, next week.

The Xposé’s cheerfully chintzy look and feel, the lack of interest in period detail, the wispy plot, and endless shots of a pensive Reshammiya walking down a Paris avenue, gazing moony-eyed at Zara’s rival Chandni (Afroz), dominating the shooting of an under-production movie, and yanking every other character’s strings this way and that add up to an ambitious vanity project that holds appeal only to other members of the singer’s treasure hunt. Full marks for trying, but none for refusing to give up.

Entertaining pulp fiction that turns spoof-ish, thanks to the convenient twists.