Chennai
The opening credits shot from the point of view of the divider blocks on the bridge, with a song Karma...Karma is quite arresting and conveys the mood of the film. He sets up a perfect plot for an intriguing thriller from the very first scene and builds that curiosity among the audience to reveal what went wrong with the turn. But when the director does it, he fails to convince us as the plot adopts the most cliched genre of a horror thriller.
Rachana (Samantha), an intern in an established newspaper, decides to do an article about the traffic violators on the popular double bridge flyover at Velachery. A homeless man, who lives on the lane, helps her by taking note of the number plates of the vehicles that violate the rules by taking a U turn. Rachana who thinks that her life is sorted, as her romance with her colleague, Rahul Ravindran, is on track, soon gets embroiled in a messy situation. Her attempt to approach the offenders to complete her story leads her to discover a shocking truth — all the traffic violators are dead.
Things get worse when police officer Nayak (Aadhi Pinnisetty) finds out that they have committed suicide on the same day they violated the traffic rules. But what confuses the investigation team is whether these are suicides or murders and does Rachana have any connection to these murders or she is being trapped? The answer is revealed to us only in the second half. U Turn has a lot of intriguing moments that keeps us on the edge of the seats. Pawan’s gripping screenplay with a strong message gives the audience a lesson to take home. However, after building up such a fantastic puzzle to solve, the unrealistic climax in the second half of the film is quite disappointing.
For the first time, Samantha Akkineni has carried a film entirely on her shoulders. Her new look with a short hairstyle adds to her charm and she has justified her character of a journalist. In a scene where she tries to prove her innocence to the police officials in the first half has given her scope to score as a performer.
What impressed the most is the sleek editing, decent background score and Niketh Bommireddy’s extraordinary camera work. Pawan Kumar’s casting is one of the biggest pluses of the film as actors like Rahul Ravindran and Aadhi Pinnisetty has delivered what they were expected to without going overboard. Though the Naren and Bhumika Chawla scenes don’t give the audience the thrill, they have managed to deliver good performances. Apart from a few clichéd moments in the climax, U Turn is a well-knit gripping thriller.
U turn
Director: Pawan Kumar
Cast: Samantha Akkineni, Rahul Ravindran, Aadhi Pinisetty, Naren, Bhumika Chawla
Music Director: Poorna Chandra Tejaswi
Synopsis: Rachana, an intern in a newspaper, decides to do a story on traffic offenders, who violate the rules on double road flyover at Velachery. Her attempts to learn about the violators bring out some shocking revelation, leaving her in a life-threatening situation.
Rating: 3/5
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