 Rachel Saltz of The New York Times wrote , " ' Chennai Express ' feels like a sumptuous meal with carefully chosen wine and tasty appetizers but a botched main course . Money and visual care have been lavished on this Bollywood action @-@ comedy @-@ romance and glossy stars engaged ( Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone ) . But the movie chugs along for most of its 2 hours and 20 minutes searching for comedy and characters in a frantically overplotted story . " Sneha May Francis of Emirates 24 / 7 wrote , " Rohit Shetty 's s ( h ) <unk> of romance relies heavily on buffoonery and will be applauded mainly by Shah Rukh Khan loyalists " . She added , " Rohit 's carnival @-@ like comedy coaxes some laughs , but can leave you exhausted . " Sneha said that Padukone 's performance " outshines " that of Khan . Ronnie Scheib of Variety wrote , " Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone are ill matched in this overworked comedy / romance / actioner ... Shetty 's need to maintain his characters ' romantic heroism constantly grates against his depictions of their ridiculousness . " Simon Foster of the Special Broadcasting Service gave the film 2 stars out of 5 and described it as " a loud , lame @-@ brained romantic comedy from the ( very ) broad directorial brush of Rohit Shetty , SRK 's over @-@ hyped vehicle sees the charismatic but ageing actor badly miscast and easily overshadowed by his leading lady , Deepika Padukone . " 
