Don't sit on the edge of your seat as you watch this, youmight just fall off dozing.
They needn't worry about comparisons, there's scope fornone. Ribhu Dasgupta's Bollywoodised rehash (oops, adaptation) of PaulaHawkins' bestseller of the same name is too lazy to recreate the slow-burnshock value of the novel and banks on a tangle of too many inconsequentialtwists.
Hawkins' written work, an intensely psychological piece, wasalways a challenge to recreate on screen. A lot of the 'action' in the book isactually internalised and it unfolds as thought process of the protagonist. Yourealised this aspect even while watching the Hollywood adaptation of 2016,starring Emily Blunt. However, Blunt did a great job conveying pain throughsilences, bringing alive emptiness in her gaze.
Parineeti Chopra on the other hand goes over the top tryingto underline the fact that the protagonist, introduced here as Mira Kapoor, isin pain. She shrieks and screams a lot, frowns and glares, and acts as if hercharacter was on substance (okay, she is an alcoholic for most parts).
A brief prelude tells us why Mira ends up this way after wesee her start off as an alpha woman in London -- successful lawyer at work, andhappily married at home. She has a doting husband, Shekhar (Avinash Tiwary),and they are expecting their first child.
The picture of bliss is shattered when she suffers amiscarriage after an accident. The doctor says the accident has causedanterograde amnesia, Mira becomes an alcoholic and Shekhar moots divorce.
Broken emotionally and psychologically, Mira stopspractising law although she continues 'going to work'. During her daily tripsby train she sees the old house she once shared with Shekhar, now occupied by ahappy couple, Nusrat (Aditi Rao Hydari) and Anand (Shamaun Ahmed). Mira findsthe resonance of a perfect marriage in Nusrat's life as she watches her fromthe window of her train every day. One day, she sees Nusrat in an intimate poseon the balcony, with a man who clearly isn't her husband.
The first of the film's major twists comes early on, whenNusrat goes missing and is subsequently found dead in Greenwich forest. Aturbaned female officer, simply presented as Inspector Kaur (Kirti Kulhari),investigates the case, and circumstantial evidence seems to point at Mira.
All of that is actually the build-up, meant to graduallyengage the viewer before the mystery unravels. In most potboiler thrillers, thebuild-up at least is absorbing -- if anything, for the intrigue it is supposedto raise. The Girl On The Train, sadly, is crushed by weak screen-writing(Ribhu Dasgupta and Viddesh Malandkar), even in its early portions.
For that reason, despite its polished look (Tribhuvan BabuSadineni's cinematography deserves mention), the film fails to hold attention.Sluggish editing (Sangeeth Varghese) and a couple of unnecessary songs (musicis Sunny and Inder Bawra, and Vipin Patwa) fitted into the narrative don't helpmuch.
Among the few things that might stay on in your mind isAditi Rao Hydari's act as Nusrat, in a brief but impactful portrayal. Most ofthe cast is strictly average, almost unsure about how to deal with thehalf-baked characters they get to play out.
Strictly by Bollywood standards of thrillers, and if youhaven't seen the Hollywood film or read the novel, this Hindi remake could seemunusual. But those who have an idea of the original, might just bedisappointed.
The girl, her train, and the whole jingbang that go with it,never quite manage to get on track.
Summary
The Girl On The Train
Platform: Netflix
Cast: Parineeti Chopra, Aditi Rao Hydari, Kirti Kulhari,Avinash Tiwary, Tota Roy Chowdhury, Nisha Aaliya, Shamaun Ahmed;
Director: Ribhu Dasgupta;
Rating: * * (two stars)