Heer Express Review: Umesh Shukla's Drama is Very Outdated and Boring

RATING - ⭐⭐ 2/5*

Heer Express Review Movie Talkies:

Umesh Shukla seems completely lost and rather uninterested in filmmaking nowadays. The man who once gave us films like Oh My God! (2012) and 102 Not Out (2018)—both remakes but still memorable—has now come down to making low-budget, outdated dramas that lack soul. Heer Express is far from what audiences expect from Umesh Shukla and feels like a delayed, half-hearted, and forced project. Everything here looks outdated, exhausting, and stretched to the point that sitting through its 135-minute runtime becomes an ordeal. The last 30 minutes are particularly unbearable, where both writer and director seem clueless about how to end the film. The climax is laughably illogical, showing a drugged girl suddenly regaining her senses upon hearing about her past. Medically, physically, emotionally, and logically, this makes no sense. Yet, the film tries to make this senseless twist its emotional selling point. Worse, it is so predictable that the audience can foresee it right after the intermission. The obvious question—why would one bother sitting through the next hour and a half?

Heer Express Story:

Heer Express centres on Heer (Divita Juneja), a young girl from Punjab who lives with her uncles (Gulshan Grover and Sanjay Mishra). Her mother is no more, and her father is presumed dead. She runs a restaurant in her mother’s name, which enjoys immense popularity among locals. One day, two women from London arrive at her dhaba and offer her an opportunity to work London. Heer initially rejects the offer, but when they propose that she can relaunch and manage a restaurant under her mother’s name in London, she agrees. Her new life begins in the city, where she unexpectedly meets her father, though he hides his true identity and the reasons behind his disappearance. Along the way, Heer falls in love with a young man, and things seem to be going smoothly. However, her uncles soon arrive in London and recognize the man who once betrayed their sister—Heer’s mother. This revelation threatens to shatter Heer’s new world, raising the central conflict of whether she can accept the truth and forgive the lies that shaped her life.

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While the premise could have worked as an emotional family drama, the execution is clumsy and uninspiring. Written by Sanjay Grover, Heer Express suffers from a dull and uninventive script. There is no novelty, no emotional weight, and certainly no excitement in the storytelling. Each scene is painfully predictable and feels like a weak imitation of old Bollywood dramas from the 1980s and 2000s. For example, the restaurant relaunch sequence instantly reminds you of Kal Ho Naa Ho (2003), while the estranged father-daughter storyline has been recycled far too often in Hindi cinema. Even the love story feels underdeveloped, lacking both charm and conviction. Strangely, the film never features the traditional “I love you” moment between its lead pair, yet tries to market itself as a romance. Much of the writing is half-baked, leaving story arcs incomplete and emotional beats unexplored. Instead of giving audiences an engaging or fresh perspective, the film falls back on melodrama and clichés, especially in its climax, where logic takes a complete backseat. In today’s time, when audiences are exposed to better and bolder storytelling across platforms, delivering such a shallow script feels like a step backwards.

Heer Express Cast:

Performance-wise, Divita Juneja makes a promising debut in terms of screen presence, but her acting skills still need considerable polishing. She looks beautiful and delivers her dialogues with surprising confidence, yet her expressions often fall flat, failing to evoke the necessary emotions. Prit Kamani plays her love interest with sincerity and looks the part of a loyal, supportive boyfriend, but the chemistry between him and Divita simply doesn’t click. Ashutosh Rana does what he can with his limited role, relying on years of experience to carry himself with dignity. Gulshan Grover and Sanjay Mishra attempt to bring weight to their characters, but their efforts feel forced and rarely make an impact. Sarah Lockett struggles with her Hindi lines in the beginning but improves as the film progresses. Meghna Malik is adequate in her role, while the rest of the supporting cast adds very little value to the narrative. Overall, the performances fail to elevate an already uninspired script.

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Heer Express Movie Review:

The music is another weak link in Heer Express. Instead of adding energy or emotional depth, the songs make the film drag further, testing the audience’s patience. Being forced to sit through dull songs while already enduring a predictable drama feels like being punished twice. On the technical front, the film clearly suffers from budgetary limitations and delay in making. The production values appear low-grade, with nothing memorable in terms of cinematography, editing, or overall presentation. The only saving grace is Umesh Shukla’s experience, which prevents the film from completely collapsing into a headache-inducing mess. Yet even his skills cannot save it from mediocrity. In the end, Heer Express is simply an outdated, exhausting, and uninspired film that offers very little entertainment. A handful of scenes may pass off as decent, but as a whole, the film fails to engage. Watch it only if you are ready to waste 135 minutes of your weekend on a drama that goes nowhere.