The Girl On The Train: Parineeti Chopra in the film. (courtesy parineetichopra)4
Cast: Parineeti Chopra, Aditi Rao Hydari, Kirti Kulhari, Avinash Tiwary, Shamaun Ahmed, Tota Roy Choudhury
Director: Ribhu Dasgupta
Rating: One and a half stars (out of 5)
A psychological thriller with too many arbitrary twists for its own good, The Girl On The Train, a Netflix presentation, runs out of steam pretty quickly and degenerates into a bumpy ride. The film, written and directed by Ribhu Dasgupta, deviates sharply, and frequently, from the source material – British author Paula Hawkins’ bestseller of the same title that yielded an Emily Blunt-fronted Hollywood movie in 2016 – and loses its way in a maze of cliches.
The Girl On The Train has a go at the entire gamut – deceit, betrayal, blackmail, murder, vengeance and a police investigation – but not for once manages to pique our curiosity, generate any degree of intrigue or create the slightest semblance any tension. It plays out like a puzzle with key pieces missing, pretty much in the manner in which the female protagonist’s memory functions.
Rather than a psychological drama about a woman who is lost and finds herself again through sheer willpower, Dasgupta’s The Girl on the Train stumbles about thriller territory. Parineeti Chopra plays Mira, a divorcee in London. Her law practice has been wrecked by her drinking habit. She is still stuck on her ex-husband Shekhar (Avinash Tiwary. Deeply resentful of his second marriage, Mira drinks furiously and sadly.
The couple she sees from her train window on her daily commute gives her a point of focus. Nusrat (Aditi Rao Hydari) and Anand (Shamaun Ahmed) seem to be the picture of contentment. Mira’s voyeurism allows her to build a fantasy narrative around Nusrat.
When Nusrat goes missing and Mira is spotted in the vicinity, the alcoholic who has memory losses and can barely hold herself together but never forgets to put on eyeshade and colour-coordinated clothing is a major suspect. Kirti Kulhari’s police officer gathers a pile of evidence against Mira, forcing the alcoholic to question her movements.
