He kidnaps the wrong boy, Daddu, the illegitimate son of Ahalya and police officer Rao, but manages to get a huge ransom from Chettiar / Mehta by default.

In May 2004, Kamal Haasan and Singeetam Srinivasa Rao were keen to make a Hindi-Tamil bilingual film tentatively titled Kumar Sambhavam with Madhuri Dixit as the lead actress.

Haasan revealed that the film would be made in Tamil and Hindi, with the former version also featuring Nassar, Pasupathy and Vaiyapuri while the latter would include Mahesh Manjrekar, Om Puri and Saurabh Shukla in its cast.

[4] Haasan then decided to fund the film and Crazy Mohan was approached to write the dialogues, though the writer later pulled out of the venture as he went for a tour to United States.

[1] Baradwaj Rangan praised the film calling it "one of Kamal Haasan's most tight-knit, most convoluted screenplays, where every pratfall, every pun, every preposterous moment seems to have been spat on, polished, and precisely positioned into an overall jigsaw pattern".

"[14] Malathi Rangarajan of The Hindu wrote, "Rajkamal Films International's Mumbai Xpress is a clean, comic package for the entire family, which showcases Kamal's versatility in story and dialogue writing too".

[15] Nikhat Kazmi of The Times of India reviewing the Hindi version gave the film 2.5 stars out of 5, writing "Other than that occasional laugh, there isn't much to lift your spirits or tickle your ribs.

[17] Sneha May Francis of Rediff.com gave the Hindi version a mixed review, writing "To sum it up, Mumbai Xpress is a poor man's superhero movie and an out-and-out children's flick.

",[18] while Siddhu Warrier of the same website, gave the Tamil version a positive review, wrote "The dialogues are the highlight of the movie -- almost every line elicits a guffaw.

The jokes, bucking today's trend, are not ribald and risqué, but of the kind that would get even the average 10 year old kicking the back of the seat in front of him in joy (of course, much to my dismay).