The Xposé

The Xpose
Directed by	Anant Mahadevan
Produced by	Vipin Reshammiya
Written by	Himesh Reshammiya
Starring	Himesh Reshammiya Zoya Afroz Sonali Raut Honey Singh
Narrated by	Irrfan Khan
Music by	Himesh Reshammiya
Cinematography	Maneesh Chandra Bhatt
Distributed by	HR Musik Limited
Release dates	16 May 2014 (2014-05-16)
Country	India
Language	Hindi
Box office	22.77 crore (US$3.6 million)[1]

The Xpose (stylized as The Xposé) is a 2014 musical-thriller film directed by Anant Mahadevan and produced by Vipin Reshammiya under the banner of HR Musik. The film stars Himesh Reshammiya alongside newcomers Zoya Afroz and Sonali Raut who appear in supporting roles, whilst Irrfan Khan makes a special appearance. Musician Yo Yo Honey Singh also appears in the film, portraying a negative role, thus making his Bollywood acting debut.

The film released on 16 May 2014, and received mixed response from critics. After a slow opening at the box office, the film was declared a hit.

Plot

Two actresses, Zara Fernandes and Chandni Roy, are both set to make their film debut on the same date. Chandni's film becomes a box office success, whereas Zara's film is a flop. This angers Zara who believes she is higher and better than every other new actress. Zara starts an argument with Chandni after an awards party, and the two end up fighting. Later that night, Zara is murdered. The blame obviously goes towards Chandni, and she has no way to prove her innocence.

Chandni's lover, Ravi Kumar, decides to step in and find the real murderer to save his love. Ravi happens to be an ex-cop, who was sacked from his job as a police officer after shooting a parliamentarian apparently. Ravi is now an actor, who happens to have debuted in the same film as Zara. The suspect list in the murder is extremely high, there is Virmaan, who is Chandni's ex-boyfriend, Subba Prasad who is Zara's film director and KD, a music director who had an affair with Zara, as well as many other suspects.

In the end, it finally turns out that after Zara & Chandni's fight, Zara went up to the terrace where she met KD (hinting that their affair was still going on at the time of her death) and as the two got together, KD's wife Shabnam started looking for KD. KD heard Shabnam coming up to the terrace, so tried to run away, and accidentally pushed Zara away from him, which led to her to fall from the terrace. It also turns out that after falling down, she landed outside Subba Prasad's window. Subba decided to let her fall so her death could gain attention and maybe help their flop film be successful.

KD & Subba are arrested. KD is arrested for 7 years and Subba Prasad is given life sentence. After all the supposed suspects leave the court, Chandni confesses to her love for Ravi. The two get together, and Ravi tells Chandni that actually, he knew that she was the one who murdered Zara. In a flashback, it is revealed that after Subba let Zara fall down, she was still alive and was found by Chandni. Chandni was so frustrated and annoyed by her that she hit Zara on the head with a glass bottle, finally killing her. Ravi decides to keep this a secret between him and Chandni, and the two walk off.

Cast

• Himesh Reshammiya as Ravi Kumar
• Zoya Afroz as Chandini Raza
• Sonali Raut as Zara Peter Fernandes
• Yo Yo Honey Singh as Kenny Damania
• Anant Mahadevan as Subba Prasad
• Irrfan Khan as Alec D'Costa
• Rajesh Sharma as Grover
• Adil Hussain as Rajan
• Daya Shankar Pandey as Naidu

Music

Soundtrack

The soundtrack is composed by Himesh Reshammiya, lyrics penned by Sameer, Kumaar and Shabbir Ahmed. Vocalists include Yo Yo Honey Singh, Himesh Reshammiya, Ankit Tiwari, Palak Muchhal. The soundtrack released on 14 April 2014 with The Times Of India stating "An album that has something for everyone, The Xpose is masala magic at its most potent.".^[2]

Critical reception

The film prominently got mixed reviews frim the critics.Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama rated it 3/5 and stated that the film "take[s] you back in time. When Bollywood depended completely on the whims and fancies of its lead stars." ^[3]

Mehul S Thakkar of Deccan Chronicle gave it 3.5 stars stating "What also adds to the whole packaging of the film is the attention to minute detail of that era be it as minute as a ceiling lamp or a pen. R.K studios, a treasure house of antique items, have been credited to supply film cameras of those times for the shoot, shown as props in the film." ^[4]

Subhash K Jha reviewed the film for NDTV and gave 3.5 stars stating "The suspense drama is bright, bouncy, believable and entertaining."^[5]

Vishal Verma for IndiaGlitz has rated 3 Stars stating "The Xpose is a Dazzling Tour De Sixties"^[6] Rahul Desai for Mumbai Mirror has given 3 stars for its entertainment.^[7]

Sequel

Himesh Reshammiya confirmed that he is planning a sequel to The Xpose, but no other official confirmation has stated when or whether the sequel has started filming.^[8][9]

References

External links

• The Xposé at the Internet Movie Database