If one wishes to give it a particular genre, then yes THE XPOSE can be called a murder mystery, more interested in portraying something else ahead than its actual crime. A ‘Who-Dun-It’ investigative drama, in which the murder actually happens just before the interval and till then the makers remain too involved in reliving both the famous and not so famous controversies of the most memorable era of Hindi films (before the 90's namely 60's & 70's).
THE XPOSE begins exactly like a 60's film with a song playing with its titles and then a voiceover introducing its entire 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. Throwing another fine twist towards the end, the director tries to justify its basic genre forcefully. 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. However the same cannot be said about the Art Direction and Costumes which don’t really take you back in time as projected.
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 (probably keeping RAAJ KUMAR in mind). 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 Randhawa remain wasted.
In short THE X-POSE 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. And in case you are interested to know which all instances have been used in the film to give it a wicked feel, then here is the list given below. And the film does become an exciting one time watch, once you perfectly know who they are referring to and in which scene.
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 (as I can remember).
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. Interestingly this also reminds you of the tussle between the titles of MERA NAAM JOKER and JOHNY MERA NAAM before their close releases.
(Would soon try to post a detailed article on the same)
11. A song resembles the sound design and voice of R. D. BURMAN singing in films like APNA DESH (1972).
12. The sudden death of an actress, falling from a high rise building, reminds you of the sad, untimely & shocking demise of Manmohan Desai and Divya Bharti.
13. 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.
14. 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 (as they were called) 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.
Rating : 2 / 5 (Including 1 for just reliving that Golden Era & the soothing songs).
