Adamantium-coated crooner Himesh Reshammiya continues his quest for a movie worthy of his non-singing talents in The Xposé. The misspelt title is hardly surprising, given that his previous cinematic adventures have borne such titles as Aap Kaa Surroor: The Moviee–The Real Luv Story and Karzzzz. These adventures have yielded no treasures till date, but Reshammiya refuses to abandon the dig. He is still out there, hunting hard for the critical and commercial acclaim he believes he deserves.
Perhaps in response to the ridicule heaped on most of his previous films, Reshammiya’s latest project, based on a story by him and directed by Anant Mahadevan, dials down the so-bad-it-is-fun factor. The singer has lost oodles of weight, hired a stylist and grown a moustache. He packs his home production with several actors, including non-professionals like rapper Yo Yo Honey Singh, new faces like Sonali Raut and Zoya Afroz, and veterans like Irrfan Khan and Adil Hussain. There are attempts at plausibility and pop philosophy. The emphasis, however, remains firmly on Reshammiya, who’s always framed in flattering light conditions and given ample opportunities to showcase his singing and fighting skills. The film-within-a-film plot gives Reshammiya an even better excuse to lay claim to stardom—he plays a leading Southern actor, Ravi Kumar, who declares that his face doesn’t need a touch-up job because he was born with make-up on.
Bunty Rathore’s punchy dialogue, aimed both at burnishing Reshammiya’s image and spoofing it, is the liveliest thing about a movie that claims to dish out dirt on the Hindi cinema in the sixties. Marquee name Zara (Raut) falls to her death during a party, but the movie is more interested in rolling out insider jokes and nudge-nudge-wink-wink references to stars from the past than in finding her killer. 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.
The Xposé released in theatres on Friday.
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