The Girl on the Train, now streaming on Netflix, is the Indian adaptation of the 2016 film with the same name as well as the 2015 novel by British author Paula Hawkins.
After lawyer Mira Kapoor (Parineeti Chopra) refuses to back down from a case and wins it, she and her husband Shekhar (Avinash Tiwary) are hit by a car as revenge from the defendants.
Pregnant at the time, Mira loses her child and finds herself spiralling into alcoholism. On top of this, she is diagnosed with anterograde amnesia, a condition which prevents her from transferring short term memories to long term memories.
She become abusive, and ends up ruining her marriage with Shekhar, who marries Anjali (Natasha Benton) after having an affair with her while still married to Mira.
Divorced and suffering, Mira has hit rock bottom. While travelling by train each day, she develops an obsession with Nusrat (Aditi Rao Hydari), who she frequently spots in her balcony. She believes Nusrat has a perfect life with her husband Anand (Shamaun Ahmed), the same as what Mira once had.
Things take a turn for the worse when Nusrat is found dead in a forest in Greenwich, and Mira has some recollection of the crime scene.
The inspector in charge of the case (Kirit Kulhari) is hot on her heels and strongly believes she is connected to the killing. Did Mira kill Nusrat? Or is there more to the story?
The Girl on the Train (2021) ending explained in detail:
The father of Nusrat’s unborn child
When Shekhar’s former boss Zehra (Monisha Hassen) reveals to Mira that the stories of her getting drunk and abusive were all made up by Shekhar.
Zehra also tells her that Shekhar was fired because he harassed his co-worker, something he pinned on Mira’s behaviour at one of Zehra’s parties.
Realising that Shekhar took advantage of her amnesia and drunk state to manipulate her and gain an upper hand, Mira is left shocked. He also lied to her that she could not get pregnant again after the accident due to complications.
In possession of Nusrat’s phone, Mira notices her chats with Shekhar, and figures out that she had been having an affair with him. They had also planned to meet in the forest that day of her murder.
Mira manages to locate evidence collected by the private investigator, named Walter (Richie Lawrie), that Anand had hired to keep an eye on Nusrat, suspecting her of infidelity. Though Walter is killed after being hit by a black car, Mira finds pictures of Nusrat and Shekhar, confirming the affair.
Nusrat had earlier revealed to her psychiatrist Dr. Hamid that she was pregnant and Anand was not the father of the child. The revelation exposes Shekhar as the real father.
It’s all coming back
Mira begins to remember the night of the murder. She was noticed by Shekhar and beaten to the state of unconsciousness, believing she wouldn’t remember the incident the next day anyway. She calls him for a final confrontation.
At gunpoint, Shekhar confesses that he met Nusrat in the forest and when he found Mira following her, he assaulted his former wife.
When he went back to Nusrat, she revealed her pregnancy. Knowing that the situation would ruin his marriage with Anjali, Shekhar wanted nothing to do with the child.
When Nusrat threatened to expose him and accused him of using women, Shekhar choked her until she collapsed, believing her to be dead.
Shekhar offers Vodka to Mira as a means to ‘appease’ her. However, she baits Shekhar by offering Nusrat’s phone, which has all the proof against him, and hits him on the head with the gun, leaving him unconscious.
The real killer revealed
The identity of Walter’s killer is still bothering Mira, who realises it was the same car that caused the accident after the court case earlier in the narrative.
When she checks the owner of the car, it shows Jimmy Bagga, the defendant in the court case Mira had won. Jimmy had committed suicide later.
When she checks his Facebook profile, she finds a picture with him and the inspector in charge of the case, Dalbir Kaur Bagga.
Dalbir shows up at the location with a gun, revealing that she had planned the revenge all along. She had even doctored the footage at High Road station to make it seem like Mira was at the station at 10:30 pm, even though she had actually left at 8:30 pm.
She had also followed Mira to the forest that day and Walter had managed to capture her in one of the pictures. When she found Mira on the ground after being beaten up by Shekhar, Dalbir assaulted her as well, trying to strangle her to death.
Shekhar had only managed to render Nusrat unconscious. When she woke up, she found Dalbir trying to kill Mira. To protect herself, Dalbir killed Nusrat.
Mira says that she had figured out that Walter’s killer had her phone, and had sent a text message to lure them into coming to the location. It was a set up all along.
The ensuing struggle with the gun and ends with Dalbir getting shot. Mira places the gun in the hands of an unconscious Shekhar, framing him for the murder.
Anjali breaks off her marriage with Shekhar and Mira is seen back in the train looking forward to a new life with a new beginning.
Notably, the ending is different from the 2016 movie, where Shekhar’s version of the film, ‘Tom’, is the real murderer and he’s killed by Mira’s version ‘Rachel’ with a corkscrew.
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