U-Turn (Hindi/Zee5)
Cast: Alaya F, Priyanshu Painyuli, Aashim Gulati, Rajesh Sharma
Director: Arif Khan
Rating: 2/5
Pawan Kumar’s ‘U-Turn’ created a wave in the Kannada film industry. It received critical acclaim and was remade in different languages including Sinhalese. However, director Arif Khan’s attempt in Hindi is far from flattering.
The basic story remains the same, while the script is bombarded with details. In this Zee5 original, much like the Kannada film, Radhika, a journalism intern, is investigating bike riders violating traffic on the NTPC flyover. Things go berserk when she is suspected for the murder of one of the motorists.
Random hints of a paranormal presence is dropped at intervals in the film. There are random twists and turns where the film feels like a hub of several stories happening parallelly: Radhika’s social media posts from earlier are shown, so as to hint to a possible involvement in the murders; her mother serves food on an empty table while talking to someone (who cannot be seen), and Radhika imagines her dead brother calling her name. Effects like flickering lights, ghostly images appearing, a child’s giggles, and whispering voices have been added yet don’t make sense.
The Hindi version has intentionally upped the horror element in hopes of keeping the audience guessing. And just when one is almost convinced, the story changes, yet again. ‘U-Turn’ has a unique ending but not an impressive one.
Alaya F manages to be convincing as a crime hater and new-age journalist.
Priyanshu Painyuli as Arjun Sinha, a cop, and Aashim Gulati as Aditya, a senior journalist are convincing. As for the director, it does look like he has good ideas but probably needed more execute them successfully.
If you are expecting a thriller, you should know that ‘U-Turn’ is a mishmash of several things. Watch if you have nothing else to do this weekend.
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