There seems to be an unspoken tribute to Michael Jackson's Bad in The Xposé, a murder mystery caper set in the '60s that is this week's only Hindi film release. A five-note bassline, also used in its song 'Ice-cream Khaaungi', sounds exactly like the bassline to Jackson's 1987 hit and is a constantly recurring leitmotif in the film's background score. By constantly, I mean you can't go three scenes without hearing it.
Just like how the music video for 'Bad', when viewed today, appears to exist in the space between 'self-referential camp' and 'legitimate pop culture', Ananth Narayan Mahadevan directs The Xposé in a manner that suggests he wants it to land in a similar zone. And wonder of wonders, for the most part, he succeeds. Marking the return of once-superstar music-director-turned-vanity-project-enthusiast Himesh Reshammiya, The Xposé is that rare lowbrow effort that knows exactly what it wants to be and is single-minded in its determination to be that product.