| The Girl On The Train (2021) | |
| Director: | Ribhu Dasgupta |
| Cast: | Parineeti Chopra, Kriti Kulhari, Aditi Rao Hydari, Avinash Tiwari |
| IMDB: | 3.8/10 |
| Platform: | Netflix |
The Girl On The Train Post
The story revolves around Mira Dev, an alcoholic divorcee, who takes daily train rides fantasizing about a seemingly perfect couple who live in a house that her train passes. One night the girl she stares at goes missing & the blame comes on Mira. Now, what happened that particular night that changed it all for her & is she the reason behind the missing girl? Or is it somebody else?
The Girl On The Train Review
When I first heard about this movie somehow I knew it is not going to work. People who have seen the original would never want to watch a remake. I will give the review in just a single line- Watch the original 2016 movie again. It doesn’t matter if you have watched the original movie or not if you have the slightest thought of watching this on Netflix, watch the original film instead. The Girl on the Train (2021) is a ridiculous remake of the 2016 film which was based on a book written by Paula Hawkins, of the same name. What makes it ridiculous- terrible script, poor direction, terrible acting, unnecessary songs & God knows why but an absurd climax.
First of all want to know two things. Why Bollywood is obsessed with remake & why they need to enter songs everywhere. The movie starts and suddenly there is a song that feels forced. And then there’s so many of them throughout that has no part in the story-telling but because it is essential for Bolly-commercials to have them. The songs are what dragged the movie from what could have been one & half hours film to 2 hours. The story is forcibly adapted to fit a Bollywood storyline that is so ridiculous wherein an alcohol anonymous meeting Parineeti’s character Mira talks in Hindi where people clearly from other nationalities are around. Only God knows if they are understanding her.
Performance
Remember the time when we ”appreciated” Parineeti Chopra for her outstanding roles in consecutive films. Well, now her script choice & her performance is going horrible. She might have tried to fit with the story which was already horrible. Her overacting as an alcoholic was the first major setback for the audience who thought of watching it. If you remember Emily Blunt in the original movie she was so calm yet so terrifyingly damaged to think of being around such a person would scare you. She was so real & excellent as the protagonist. But Chopra ripped-off her character as melodramatic, drinking and throwing unnecessary dialogues that sound rather filmy.
Just like many guys I too am a big fan of Aditi Rao’s beauty who is also a good performer. But in this film, she got no scope of showing her acting skills but her beauty. Kirti Kulhari as a police officer was a good choice but again looks like since the execution of the story is so inferior, everyone’s effort to shine in their role went down.
Technical Aspects
Everything was wrong with the prosthetics. I mean what was that on Parineeti’s forehead throughout the film- was it a wound or pile of soy sauce that was willingly not removed.
And what the director, Ribhu Dasgupta was thinking while making this movie! Making a remake is a very risky choice although Bollywood is very fierce on that topic although they fail most of the time. And when you are making a remake of an already excellent film, it’s even riskier to meet the expectation of a “quality audience”. The clever choice would have been copying the original Holly script. Had they exactly copied everything & with a good cast, this film could have worked. But our director & writers are brave. They tried to add their own twists & climax that ended up horribly in an already miserable execution.
Story & Dialogues
The Girl on the Train (2016) explores the character of three primary women going through unique personal obstacles- alcohol abuse & miscarriage, a wife & mother left miserably by husband & a girl who wants to escape from an abusive relationship. The Hindi adaptation doesn’t shine a light on any of these characters except one & then the audience doesn’t get to know who these women are & why they are in such turmoil.
If you watch the original movie the first 10 mins are enough to engage you in a suspense ride whereas, in the new Netflix film, you will spend good 40-45 mins staring at unnecessary plots and songs that the audience doesn’t care about. The cringe dialogues like in a random conversation between Mira & her husband, Parineeti says, “Mujhe baccha nahi Bacchan chahiye” took away all realism as if they didn’t even want to have one in the first place. Was it that necessary to put such silly dialogues in a thriller? This is not a Rajnikanth movie ladies & gentlemen.
Verdict
“Don’t watch this film” is the only verdict you will get from here. Watch the original Hollywood film a hundred times more but not this. It is awkward, miserable & all other negative adjectives you can think of. This is not the first time Bollywood had tried & messed a remake. I think it is high time they should realize that what they call remake is basically “rip-off”. If they want to make a remake then plainly do ctrl c +ctrl v & please God please, don’t try to add their own story to an already exceptional one because that never works with them.
