Bollywood will always be Bollywood! That's the first thought that comes to mind after watching Parineeti Chopra-starrer The Girl on the Train.
Helmed by writer-director Ribhu Dasgupta and produced under the banner of Reliance Entertainment, The Girl on the Train is a Bollywood adaptation of the 2016's Hollywood flick of the same name. In fact, it is an adaptation of Paula Hawkins' bestselling novel.
Like the English version, the B-town adaptation too fared poorly despite the Hollywood aesthetics and Dasgupta's few additions. At the end, the movie simply failed to establish a connection with the characters.
For the unversed, the thriller revolves around a young lawyer Mira Kapoor (Parineeti Chopra) who succumb to alcoholism after seeing both her personal and professional life fall to shambles. Her only respite is the daily commute on train. It's when she really opens her heart out.
It is also during these journeys that she gets to see a glimpse of Nusrat (Aditi Rao Hydari), a young woman living a seemingly perfect and happy life. This makes Mira long for her good old days. Over time, she develops an uncanny connection with Nusrat. However, when she goes missing, Mira, and even the audience finds themselves at the vortex of a crime thriller.
The movie, set in London, also features Kirti Kulhari who dons the role of Inspector Dalbir Kaur.
Despite Parineeti and Kriti's best efforts, the former's monologue looks artificial and the latter's investigation scenes are overly dramatic. Aditi Rao Hydari looks pretty and her character could have been explored. Parineeti's make up is yet another element that looks very forced.
Avinash Tiwary, as the quiet husband, is the only saving grace. But by then, the audiences are too exhausted by all the twists and turns to even care.
The sloppy narrative leaves the film in a mess and eventually ends with some cliched monologues.
The movie did have scope to address issues including domestic abuse and mental health, but it seems Dasgupta was tunnel-visioned on turning this into that usual 'masaledaar' Bollywood flick that we have all come to despise.
The Girl On The Train streams on Netflix.
