''The Xposé'' (stylized as ''The XPOSÉ'') is a 2014

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

Hindi-language Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of the Government of India, alongside English, and is the ''lin ...

period Period may refer to: Common uses * Period (punctuation) * Era, a length or span of time *Menstruation, commonly referred to as a "period" Arts, entertainment, and media * Period (music), a concept in musical composition * Periodic sentence (o ...

thriller film directed by

Anant Mahadevan Ananth Narayan Mahadevan (born 28 August 1950) is an Indian film director, screenwriter, and an actor. Career Anant along with Sanjay Pawar received the National Award (2010) for the Best Screenplay and Dialogues for the successful Marathi ...

and produced by Vipin Reshammiya under the banner of HR Musik. Inspired by scandals in

1960s File:1960s montage.png, Clockwise from top left: U.S. soldiers during the Vietnam War; the Beatles led the British Invasion of the U.S. music market; a half-a-million people participate in the Woodstock, 1969 Woodstock Festival; Neil Armstrong ...

and

1970s File:1970s decade montage.jpg, Clockwise from top left: U.S. President Richard Nixon doing the V for Victory sign after his resignation from office following the Watergate scandal in 1974; The United States was still involved in the Vietnam War ...

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, is primarily produced in Mumbai. The popular term Bollywood is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (former name of Mumbai) and "Cinema of the United States, Hollywood". The in ...

cinema, the film stars

Himesh Reshammiya Himesh Reshammiya (born 23 July 1973) is an Indian playback singer, music director, songwriter, film and music producer, and actor in Hindi cinema, with over 1,300 songs to his credit as a music director. He started his career as a music direct ...

alongside newcomers

Sonali Raut Sonali Raut (born 23 December 1990) is an Indian actress and model who appears in Hindi films. She has been a Kingfisher Calendar Girl since 2010, and was 19 when she featured in the annual calendar. Raut made her acting debut with romantic-thr ...

and Zoya Afroz, while

Irrfan Khan Irrfan Khan () (born Sahabzade Irfan Ali Khan; 7 January 196729 April 2020) was an Indian actor who worked in Indian cinema as well as British and American films. Widely regarded as one of the finest actors in world cinema, Khan's career spa ...

makes a special appearance. Musician

Yo Yo Honey Singh Hirdesh "Honey" Singh (born 15 March 1983), known professionally as Yo Yo Honey Singh, is an Indian singer, rapper and record producer, music producer who commenced his career as a hip-hop record producer, music producer in 2003 with his unde ...

also appears in the film, making his Bollywood acting debut. It is the first film in The Xposé Universe, followed by a spinoff, '' Badass Ravi Kumar'', which was released on 7 February 2025.

Plot

In 1960s

Bombay Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial centre, financial capital and the list of cities i ...

, two actresses, Zara Fernandes and Chandni Roy, are both set to make their film debut on the same date. Chandni's film ''Reena Mera Naam'' becomes a box office success, whereas Zara's film ''Ujjwal Nirmal Sheetal'' is a

flop Floating point operations per second (FLOPS, flops or flop/s) is a measure of computer performance in computing, useful in fields of scientific computations that require floating-point calculations. For such cases, it is a more accurate measur ...

. 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. Ravi is now an actor, who happens to have debuted in the same film as Zara. The suspect list in the murder is extremely large, there is Virmaan, who is Chandni's ex-boyfriend, Subba Prasad who is Zara's

film director A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfillment of that Goal, vision. The director has a key role ...

and KD, a

music director A music director, musical director or director of music is a person responsible for the musical aspects of a performance, production, or organization. This would include the artistic director and usually chief conductor of an orchestra or concert ...

who had an

affair An affair is a relationship typically between two people, one or both of whom are either married or in a long-term Monogamy, monogamous or emotionally-exclusive relationship with someone else. The affair can be solely sexual, solely physical or ...

with Zara, as well as many other suspects. After Ravi's investigation, it turns out that after Zara and Chandni fought, 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 he tried to run away, and accidentally pushed Zara away from him, which led to her falling 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 and Subba are convicted. KD is sentenced to 7 years, and Subba is given a life sentence in prison. After all the supposed suspects leave the court, Chandni confesses 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.

Cast

as Ravi Kumar *

as Zara Peter Fernandes *

as Kenny Damania (KD) * Zoya Afroz as Chandni Roy * Jesse Randhawa as Shabnam Rai *

as Subba Prasad * Rajesh Sharma as

Inspector Inspector, also police inspector or inspector of police, is a police rank. The rank or position varies in seniority depending on the organization that uses it. Australia The rank of Inspector is present in all Australian police forces excep ...

Raj Grover *

Bhagyashree Bhagyashree Patwardhan Dassani ( Patwardhan; born 23 February 1969), known mononymously as Bhagyashree, is an Indian actress. She is known for her roles in Hindi language film and television. She is a recipient of a Filmfare Award, in addition ...

as Madhubala * Nakul Vaid as Virman Shah * Kunal Thakkur as Ronnie * Ashwin Dhar as Bobby Chadda * Kanika Dang as D'Silva *

Supriya Karnik Supriya Karnik (born 13 March 1975) is an Indian actress known for her works in Hindi cinema, Telugu cinema, Marathi cinema, and Television. Supriya is a former model, flight attendant and PR officer. Personal life Karnik started working at a ...

as Supriya *

Daya Shankar Pandey Daya Shankar Pandey (born 19 November 1965) is an Indian film and television actor. He has acted in a number of Hindi movies like '' Lagaan'' (2001), '' Gangaajal'' (2003), '' Swades'' (2004) and ''Raajneeti'' (2010). He began his career with t ...

as Naidu Special appearances *

as Alec D'Costa/Narrator *

Adil Hussain Khandkar Mohammad Adil Hussain (; born 5 October 1963) is an Indian actor who is known for his work in several Indian independent and mainstream film productions, as well as international cinema, in films such as '' The Reluctant Fundamentali ...

as Rajan Anna *

Rushad Rana Rushad Rana (born 19 November 1979) is an Indian actor. Rana has worked in many hindi-language television shows and films. Some his notable works include- '' Hip Hip Hurray'', ''Woh Rehne Waali Mehlon Ki'', ''Sasural Simar Ka'', '' Kehta Hai Di ...

as a prosecution lawyer * Sanjay Mishra as an Announcer

Music

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was composed by Himesh Reshammiya, with lyrics penned by

Sameer Samir (also spelled Sameer) is a male name found commonly in South Asia, the Middle East, and Central Asia. In Arabic, Samir () means "holy", "jovial", "loyal", or "charming". In Albanian, it literally means "so good" but loosely "exquisite", ...

Kumaar Rakesh Kumar Pal, known mononymously as Kumaar, is an Indian lyricist who works in Hindi cinema. Some of his songs include "Rula Ke Gaya Ishq", " Tu Bhi Royega", "Dil Ki Aadat", " Baby Doll', " Chittiyaan Kalaiyaan", " Sooraj Dooba Hain", "Lo ...

and Shabbir Ahmed. Vocalists include

, Reshammiya,

Ankit Tiwari Ankit Tiwari is an Indian people, Indian playback singer, live performer, music director, composer. His career began upon meeting Pradeep Sarkar where he got a chance to work on jingles and started composing background music for television pro ...

Palak Muchhal Palak Muchhal (born 30 March 1992) is an Indian playback singer and lyricist. She and her younger brother Palash Muchhal perform stage shows across India and abroad to raise funds for the poor children who need financial assistance for the med ...

. "Hai Apna Dil Toh Awaara" is an interpolation of the song of the same name by

Hemant Kumar Hemanta Mukhopadhyay (16 June 1920 – 26 September 1989), known professionally as Hemanta Mukherjee and Hemant Kumar, was an Indian music director and a playback singer who primarily sang in Bengali and Hindi, along with several other India ...

from the 1958 film '' Solva Saal''. The soundtrack released on 14 April 2014 with ''

The Times of India ''The Times of India'' (''TOI'') is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by the Times Group. It is the List of newspapers in India by circulation, third-largest newspaper in India by circulation an ...

'' stating "An album that has something for everyone, ''The Xpose'' is masala magic at its most potent."

Critical reception

Reception

Taran Adarsh Taran Adarsh (born 13 June 1965) is an Indian film critic and trade analyst. He is best known for giving trade figures and box office updates on social media, as well as his reviews for Bollywood Hungama. Career Taran Adarsh started his journ ...

Bollywood Hungama Bollywood Hungama (lit. "Bollywood Madness" in Hindi), previously known as IndiaFM (or IndiaFM.com), is an Indian entertainment website, owned by Hungama Digital Media Entertainment, which acquired the website in 2000. The website provides n ...

rated the film 3/5 and concluded "an entertaining outing for fans of atypical Bollywood-style murder mysteries." Mehul S. Thakkar of ''

Deccan Chronicle ''Deccan Chronicle'' is an English-language daily newspaper based in Hyderabad, India. Founded in 1938, it was initially launched as a Weekly newspaper, weekly and later converted into a daily. The newspaper's name reflects its origins in the ...

'' gave it 3.5/5 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 New Delhi Television Ltd is an Indian news media company focusing on broadcast and digital news publication. It was founded in 1984 by economist Prannoy Roy and journalist Radhika Roy. NDTV began as a production house for news segments, ...

and gave it 3.5/5 stars stating "The suspense drama is bright, bouncy, believable and entertaining." Rahul Desai for ''

Mumbai Mirror The ''Mumbai Mirror'' is an Indian English-language newspaper published in Mumbai, Maharashtra. Launched in 2005 as a compact daily newspaper, its coverage focused on city specific local news and civic issues concerning education, healthcare an ...

'' gave 3 stars for its entertainment. Shrey Saxena of ''Mint'' rated it 1/10.

Awards and nominations

;

BIG Star Entertainment Awards The Big STAR Entertainment Awards was an annual award show presented by Reliance Broadcast Network Limited in association with STAR India to honour personalities from the field of entertainment across movies, music, television, sports, theatr ...

; Life OK Now Awards

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Xpose, The 2010s Hindi-language films 2010s masala films 2014 films 2014 masala films 2014 thriller films Fictional portrayals of the Maharashtra Police Fictional universes Films about Bollywood Films about actors Films about adultery in India Films about cinematography Films about film directors and producers Films about filmmaking Films about films Films about murder Films about music and musicians Films about parties Films about police officers Films about screenwriters Films directed by Anant Mahadevan Films scored by Himesh Reshammiya Films scored by Sanjoy Chowdhury Films set in Mumbai Films set in Chennai Films set in a movie theatre Films set in studio lots Films set in the 1960s Films shot in Mumbai HR Musik films Hindi-language films based on actual events Hindi-language thriller films Indian courtroom films Indian crime drama films Indian crime thriller films Indian detective films Indian erotic drama films Indian erotic thriller films Indian film series Indian historical drama films Indian historical thriller films Indian legal drama films Indian legal thriller films Indian murder mystery films Indian mystery drama films Indian mystery thriller films Indian romantic drama films Indian romantic thriller films Indian thriller films Police detective films R. K. Films films Romantic crime films Self-reflexive films T-Series (company) films