“The Girl On The Train” Is Much Better As The Book

An adaptation of the popular book by Paula Hawkins, “The Girl on the Train” is Bollywood’s new crime thriller streaming on Netflix. Directed by Ribhu Dasgupta, the movie follows the protagonist as she finds herself entangled in a murder mystery.

Mira Kapoor (Parineeti Chopra) is a recently divorced lawyer who is grieving, unemployed, and has a drinking problem. While it seems like life has given up on her, the only thing that’s keeping her going is the perfect couple she watches every day as her train passes by their house. They remind her of how happy she once was until one day when everything changed. Mira sees something that ruins the image of the ‘perfect couple’. She feels betrayed, angry and decides to intervene by confronting Nusrat (Aditi Rao Hydari). Unfortunately, Mira finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation led by Inspector Kaur (Kirti Kulhari) and has to rely on her broken memories to save herself.

If you have read the book or watched its 2016 adaptation starring Emily Blunt, you can pretty much guess the plot of this movie. There is however a twist which is the most exciting part of the movie. That’s not saying much because, for the most part, the movie lacks the thrill of a murder mystery. A strong plot wasn’t enough to shield the movie from unimpactful dialogues and a rather unforgettable cast barring the three leading ladies. Not to mention the completely avoidable and out-of-place songs (when will Bollywood learn?). 

If the movie has anything going for it, it’s the strong cinematography by Tribhuvan Babu Sadineni and the lighting which gave the movie the right feel especially in some of the darker scenes. Overall, “The Girl on the Train” is just about average, and as with almost every adaptation, you would be better off spending your time reading the book.