The Girl on The Train: Reviewed
Parineeti Chopra starer The Girl on The Train is based on the British author Paula Hawkins 2015 novel of the same title. Ribhu Dasgupta has the Indian version very much set in its original location - London. The best grab of this mystery thriller is that it is bilingual can be easy be understood by Hindi speaking audience.
Unlike the original film that was released in 2016 directed by Tate Taylor, Dasgupta has bought some twist and turns that will make sense as the thriller comes to its conclusion, these amendments are culturally relatable. It is good to see that the Bollywood stars are given the center stage and the other Caucasian actors/performers are just outlining characters of the plot.
The film kicks off with Mira (Parineeti Chopra) and Shekhar’s (Avinash Tiwary) fairytale romance, and a musical number is just the tick needed to make it more Bollywood specific. The music does not have space just at the beginning but time and again where it is required to amplify an emotional highlight or any other dramatic turn in the film.
Even though the movie is a onetime watch, it is nice to see that Mira, even though weighed down by life has her roots embedded as a strong woman, who is a high-profile prosecutor lawyer and does not give in to the threats of criminals.
She has consequences to face for going hard on criminals, leading to loss of her child and a divorce from her not so supportive husband after a major car crash. While she battles her alcoholism and amnesia, her husband is rather quick to move on and settle with other women in the same place. This is rather uncomfortable as we see him being so loving and caring to Mira at the beginning, reflecting that something is amiss out there!
Mira’s daily commuting through train gets her fixated not only to her husband and her past life problems but to a woman she watches from a distance, imagining her past life through her lenses. The obsession reaches to a level that Mira is later one of the prime suspects in Nusrat John’s (Aditi Rao Hydari), the women she observed from the train murder case.
The film moves slow in the first half but gets interesting as Mira grips back her control of her life and believes that no matter how much she related or disagreed with all the complications in Nusrat, she cannot kill the women.
Inspector Dalbir’s (Kriti Kulhar) role is not to be ignored rather she is a power punch at the start as well at the end. Avinash’s character is convincing but Parineeti hides behind the sympathy that she thinks her character will receive. The plot definitely gets relatable and predictable at the end as Mira’s character is unaware that she is losing grip of the whole scene. -Vritti Parasher
