U Turn

My first foray into Kannada movies and I'm not disappointed. U-Turn is a movie in the horror/mystery genre that shows the brilliance of simple story-telling and the right casting. All actors played to their strengths, and nothing was overdone. Cheers to Pawan Kumar, the director-cum-writer.

The movie revolves around a journalism intern, Rachna (Shraddha Shrinath), who is working on a story about people jumping a divider with their bikes on Bangalore's Double Road flyover, by moving loose blocks of concrete. She sees this as a blatant violation of traffic rules, and the loosened blocks are just kept lying on the street, causing problems for drivers, and sometimes fatal accidents. In her quest to get a violator's perspective, she manages to trace an address and pays a visit. This leads to her becoming embroiled in a murder investigation as a prime suspect. From there on, prepare to be hooked into a world of mystery and intrigue.

Read the full review: http://www.ergophobist.com/2017/06/movie-review-u-turn-kannada.html

8/10..Thanks Pawan Kumar for bringing the much-needed road-safety message hard-hittingly and convincingly in a very innovative way from your movie 'U-Turn'. Being a Kannadiga, I am ashamed to say that when driving on roads and following traffic rules, Bengalureans behavior is most inhumane, indiscipline, inconsiderate and insensitively rash especially bikers then cabs, small trucks, buses...And this rhetoric is coming from who have experience living in top metro cities across world. Even the most populated and impoverished Mexico City drivers follow traffic rules at their best. Looking at Bengaluru mad and chaotic traffic, it is hard to defend foreigners calling India a shxtty hole. It is shocking that India renews its Guinness records for having most number of road accidents and deaths in world every year. About 15 lakhs Indians have died in last 10 years and in Bengaluru alone, I believe 10-20 people die every day, mostly bikers again. Bengaluru 'Adjust Madi' attitude on roads is wiping out people mainly youth.

About 'U-Turn' movie qualities, it is good but not up to expectations of 'RangiTaranga', 'KendaSampige' or even Pawan Kumar's own 'Lucia'.

Pros -

1. Good road-safety message delivered to society especially the much needed one for Bengalureans.

2. Innovative storytelling with good thrilling elements.

3. Technically decent - sleek direction, good screenplay, decent background score and editing.

4. I personally felt the climax is good, contrary to popular verdict, as I have experienced and heard about similar paranormal happenings in life.

Cons -

1. Movie felt predictable with mystery elements given away with unnecessary special effects before murders.

2. Protagonist actress Shraddha's Kannada pronunciation was not up to mark. Her expressions felt similar in most scenes lacking shades and micro-expressions.

3. Acting by most actors felt flat and routine even in some intense scenes e.g. post jeep and jail murders the actors expressions lacked intensity , fear and depth.

4. Over usage of Kanglish (Kannada with English) in conversations and impractical American words (viz. Homicide for Murder, Cheque for Bill) in Indian culture should have been avoided.

5. Some scenes were not convincing e.g. a beggar residing on flyover and that too watching over people whole time looks filmy.

6. Movie felt hastily shot with minimal budget with sincerity lacking in some places.

7. Inclusion of few preachy scenes on traffic safety would have been good.

Despite the flaws, 'U-Turn' should be watched by everyone for its innovative storytelling and convincing social message on road safety.

Good Kannada movies are hard to come by. This one alone can move the needle quite a bit to the high side.

I will not reveal plots. Except for some shaky scripting in the last few minutes, the movie is remarkably watchable.

So the beginning of the movie was promising and i was excited to know what happens further on. But somewhere in the middle it was clear that there will be some supernatural powers involved and the plot became predictable. Still there were some twists in the end but they didnt add much tension to the film, mabye the one at the end, which was inspired by a real incident. It was a certainly a decent movie, not perfect, the acting was really good and the camera technique also executed well. For a movie evening with friends or Family this movie is def. a good choice. Between Stuttgart is not nice ;)

Well written screenplay with a social message.. Clean submit.. Well played thriller..