The Xposé

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 and the story ends.

Cast

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.".The music became chartbuster, songs like "Dard Dilo Ke" and "Ice Cream Khaungi" were big hits while "Hai Apna Dil Toh Awaara", "Seeshe Ka Samundar" were reminders of the old era of Bollywood with catchy music. Almost all of the songs of the album were good. Reshammiya showed his best level after a long period of time.

Reception

Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama rated the film 3/5 and concluded "an entertaining outing for fans of atypical Bollywood-style murder mysteries."

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."

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

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

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.

Awards and nominations