U Turn

When you talk proudly about Kannada films in the recent times you can hardly miss mentioning Pawan Kumar's "Lucia" . The immense success of this film put Pawan onto the list of acclaimed film-makers and the expectation level just got higher. This really puts him in a tight situation. After a gap of more than two years Pawan is back with his new project / film "U turn". The title is catchy for sure and the trailer does tempt you to watch as soon as it hits the screen.

Unlike Lucia, this is not a mind-bending, twisty or a clever script. Its minimalist, focused, fast paced and follows a linear narrative. As revealed in the trailer its a story about the mysterious events that occur on a flyover. How these events get connected to each of the characters in the film is interestingly woven. Its quite unusual to have a female play the lead protagonist but it seems to be a very sensible decision. In any narrative there should be some character which we should sympathise with and that kind of fits in right. The urban set-up of Bangalore that we live in blends perfectly with the plot. Even though the narrative scopes itself to Bangalore, it kind of works for any metropolitan city where time, traffic, chaos take precedence.

The film starts with some heavy conversational scene which is rather unconnected to the main plot. So even if you walk in five minutes late into the show you haven't missed anything important. "U Turn" is not those "dont miss the beginning" films. It flows freely and falls in place by the end of first thirty minutes. Once the main plot kicks in it hooks you on. The plot is so thin and sacred that you just cant think of tampering it by giving unnecessary faking shocks. In a way the film builds up and unfolds in a predictable sort which made sense to me. It could have been clever but the tone is such that it is more subtle than being complex. Having the lucid Lucia experience there are high chances that you could have expected it to go to wow you but the narrative chooses to be straight and more importantly delivers what it has to. We Indians are kind of fond of message oriented films. Ask any film-maker, he says there is a social message, its become a norm sort of. If you build a narrative such that the message is passed and not forced that probably has more impact. Those who have watched "Sairat" will relate to this. U-turn too does not force any message but does bring out the aspect of civic sense and responsibilities. I hope after watching people will remember and get reminded of their responsibilities on and off the roads. Lets not just limit ourselves to put on some FB post stating "I will not take this or that turn #uturn".

There is shift in genre from romance, thriller, mystery, horror. Its kind of risky given the mood swings however its an interesting experiment which did not disturb me much. There is no scope for songs, forced comical situations and am glad that no compromise has been done on this part owing to the commercial aspects. This is appreciable! There are scenes where in dialogues are excessive. Since most of the audience connect with dialogues more than the visual this traditional technique is still followed.

Performances were pretty decent. Shraddha fits in right for the role. A new face was seriously needed and she seems to have played it well. Many might feel that her Kannada could have been better but w.r.t the character she plays it is quite OK. Krishna Hebbale once again plays a cop. He is kind of senior. Roger Narayan gives out a new feel and seems to be a great find for the role. Dilip Raaj is a fine actor but has been underutilized. Hope he gets noticed for his work. There is one actor who keeps on coming to your mind while you watch the film but never comes on screen. Baadal!

Technically this is a well executed film. There is nothing awesome about the visuals as the shots are more natural and more like what you see in day-today life. The sound-scape especially for a city like Bangalore seems very effective.

No big producers, no big stars yet Pawan and his team manage to pull out a film that engages you for about two hours. Agreed that its of a different experience than Lucia but how many films like U-turn gets written, executed and delivered? Could it have been more better? Maybe! Could it have different way of ending? Maybe! But it would spoil the narrative. Looks like the only way it had to end has been followed. Well the fact is, Its an indigenous script and it surely deserves your time.

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 ;)

This is one of the best entertainers I've come across in this genre.You really are missing out on a gem if you miss this one,I can give you that.Skillfully narrated with excellent cinematography complementing it.No junk anywhere. It has been successful in preserving the audience's attention and interest till the very end.People who do not fancy the idea of existence of supernatural force might find very few parts of the movie irksome.What is more commendable is how the director has tapped into new talent.The impeccable quality simply reflects on the efforts gone into its making. This movie will certainly garner more appraisals.To sum it all up, a highly recommended thriller you can't afford to miss.

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

'Lucia' Director Pawan Kumar is back with new mystery thriller cinema 'U-Turn', with its surpassing trailer and regular updates in social networking sites created good expectations among audience, Pawan Kumar is well known for creating lively characters with no much strain involved, including this new release and his previous movies he proved again that he is an expert screenplay writer, with neat presentation and edge of the seat thriller 'U-Turn' marks as the must watch movie of this month.

The best part of 'U-Turn' is its timely and funky BGMs, music given by Poornachandra Tejaswi carries the audience in the proper tone and succeeds in holding the audience in its phase, and cinematography team did the tremendous job, including Siddarth Nuni who previously held camera in Lucia along with Satya Hegde, Advaith Gurmurthy, especially the oner or the long take taken in the police station is handled very perfectly and neatly crisped later on the desk, Pawan Kumar's poetic and metaphorical usage is the plus point to the movie flow, that enhances the intensity of the character and the plot, U-Turn is one technically excellent movie among some recent releases, Pawan Kumar and team is an inspiration in making a quality movie in a very modest budget.

Shraddha Srinath performed very well who in preparing an article for a newspaper get entailed in series of murder mystery, Dilip Raj rendered his modest performance, Roger Narayan is a person who deserves appreciation for his finest acting, his screen presence and dialogue presenting are very unique, Radhika Chetan has improved very well in her performance compared to her previous work, as the mystery unlocks excitement on the plot also exceeds its height, Pawan Kumar is a new David Fincher in presenting such mystery thrillers in very effective manner and an unconventional film maker who dares to give a try in presenting story in a different way.