A hilarious journey.... Review on Mumbai Xpress - Bollywood

Laugh and the whole world laughs with you. Cry and you cry alone.

Kamal , who has given many comedy hits, has presented another one . While Kamal has done the story and screenplay himself, apart from producing it, Sangeetam Sreenivas Rao, who has teamed up earlier with Kamal in movies like Pushpak has directed the movie. Both have done exceptionally well and succeed in making the audience laugh all the way. While the movie was released in both Tamil and in Hindi, I could watch only the hindi version and I will restrict this review to just that.

The story is about the comedy of errors committed by an innocent biker, Avinash (Kamal, nicknamed Mumbai Xpress )who is brought into a team of notorious kidnappers as a last minute replacement for an injured teammate. A plan by the kidnappers to extract ransom from a rich real estate developer by kidnapping his son misfires and gets even complicated as Avinash kidnaps an illegitimate child of an Assistant commissioner of Police (Om Puri ).

While the kidnappers want to close the issue by killing the child, Avinash wants to return the child back to his mom ( Manisha Koirala ). What follows this differences in opinion is a sequence of hilarious scenes, with an ‘all ends well’ finish.

The film no doubt has the audience dipped in comedy, but has too many twists and turns. Infact, I did think the movie logically ended after the boy reached his home, but it drags further without a destination, like a ship without a captain. While the 'A,B,C ' part is funny it is repeated so often that it becomes predictable towards the end.

Kamal excels in his role and the film literally revolves around him. Yet, unlike many othe Kamal movies which tend to be one man shows, the other support cast rise up to the occasion and give him a run for his money. Notable among them is Vijay Raaj ( in his role as Digambar). Of course, Om Puri is his usual versatile self.

Manisha Koirala s role is blunted and she appears confused between her role as a mistress and the movie s objective to keep the viewers smiling. The Builder s role is a funny one too and he seems to slip in more easily into his role than the central lady character.

The special effects and the music are not worth spending too much time on, but a lot of care has been taken to keep comedy on the frontline and forcing everything else, including cinematography to play a second fiddle to comedy.

For someone who would not expect too much, Mumbai Xpress has a lot to offer and come out with a smile. The team should be appreciated for staying focused and doing one thing well rather than chase too many rabbits. They do succeed in their intention, with some traces of overdoing it.