Bad film remake completely wastes the great original source material
Starring: Parineeti Chopra, Aditi Rao Hydari, Kirti Kulhari Director: Ribhu Dasgupta
THE Girl On The Train is a best-selling 2015 novel by British author Paula Hawkins, which was turned into a massively successful Hollywood film in 2016, and it is important you know that before finding out more about this newly released Bollywood adaptation.
Somehow the new Hindi language Netflix release has managed to waste the excellent source material and come up with this decidedly average effort.
Parineeti Chopra plays a London-based lawyer who is on a dramatic downward spiral after losing her baby in a car crash, getting divorced and developing anterograde amnesia. Now having seemingly lost everything, she begins to take the same pointless journey and becomes fixated by a woman in a house her train keeps passing. When the seemingly contented woman goes missing, a mysterious chain of events that involves a police investigation and could include murder unfolds.
Everything that was good about the Hollywood version from the believable characters to a convincing story gets lost in this remake.
Despite having a decidedly average track record, writer-director Ribhu Dasgupta thinks he knows better and for some reason makes changes that badly damage the story. This combined with poor direction and caricature-like performances results in a film that never grips you and drifts aimlessly.
What makes matters worse are needless musical breaks that do nothing to build any kind of tension.
Parineeti Chopra tries to put in a spirited effort, but she is done no favours from what turns out to be a flat screenplay that gradually begins to unravel. The supporting cast come across equally as badly.
The Bollywood remake is more like an overly long TV drama than a thriller and fails to hold attention. That is why you should ignore this pointless remake and watch instead the stunning 2016 version with Emily Blunt in the lead role.