U-Turn review: Alaya F's thriller flick is a remake that wasn't needed, and that too with an unwanted climax twist

2/5

In this ZEE5 Original movie, Radhika (Alaya F), a journalism intern who was looking into bike riders who were breaking the law on a city overpass, takes a dark turn when she is named as a suspect in the killing of one of the drivers.

While reviewing remakes, there's something that I have often mentioned: course correction! U-Turn, the Hindi remake (oh, scratch that) adaptation of the 2016 Kannada film of the same name, has made a massive change from the original. Did it work for the film? Let's find out...

The one thing that held the original film together was the killer suspense reveal, which brought the most interesting twists in recent times. U-Turn starts in the usual way when, despite the sign that U-Turns are not allowed, a man removes the concrete blocks on the NTPC flyover in Chandigarh and takes a U-Turn. He doesn't keep it back, and in no time, a speeding car hits the blocks and overturns.

The story fast-forwards to two years, when an intern, Radhika Bakshi (Alaya F), at a newspaper takes up this case of investigating people who take a U-turn and doesn't have any remorse over how dangerous it is. In no time, she is taken into custody after a man to whom she sent flowers (her way of saying Gandhigiri) dies by suicide. Then a can of worms opened: 10 people who took that U-Turn died by suicide, and only she kept a tab on those bike riders over the period of time.

The first half of the story smoothly picks up from the original story, and there are thrills, but they are not that impactful. But it still gives off major horror feels, as that's what the genre of the film is. However, in one hour and 40 minutes, it's the last act that completely destroys the film as its course correction backfires completely.

The film screams supernatural genre like its original, only to bring a twist that it's not horror, just a suspense whodunnit thriller flick. Well, U-Turn has been remade so many times that, firstly, one more was not needed, and secondly, you just had to remake it without changing storylines for the worse.

Not just that, when the Kannada film was remade in Telugu and Tamil, the script became gripping and quite meaty as we discovered the final revelation. Here, it was more of a laughable and, to be honest, disgusted feeling, as even with an emotional impact, I kept a straight face and frowned at my eyebrows throughout.

(Spoilers ahead) For example, the first death in the film showed a man facing horrific elements, including a girl child playing in his bedroom. Well, if there's a human serial killer, then how would the victim imagine the ghosts, who don't exist in this film? This is just one example of many loopholes that make U-Turn an appalling and low-lying remake.

When it comes to performances, it's quite interesting to see Alaya F shoulder a film like this so early in her career. At times like these, people might depend on the supporting actors to be more impactful than the lead. However, the supporting actors, namely Rajesh Sharma, Manurishi Chadha, and even Priyanshu Painyuli, don't come to any rescue to make the film watchable.

Talking about Alaya, she manages to keep it quite intriguing to an extent, but of course, she didn't give much expectation, and that worked better for me. The other actors follow suit, and we have seen better of them as performers in their previous works.

Arif Khan, who has been an assistant director for many films by Karan Johar, has helmed the thriller as his directorial debut. Parvez Sheikh and Radhika Anand have penned the script and turned it into a disappointing climax, which ruined the already mediocre film that this U-Turn is.

Supernatural elements make a story more fictitious, and you cannot question the logic behind it, which I didn't for the Kannada and Tamil-Telugu films. However, when the supernatural elements are eliminated and we get a human serial killer, then questioning it makes sense, right? Well, here it seems like makers put viewers to the test to find out all the loopholes the film has been making since the beginning.

Bottomline: ZEE5's U-Turn turned out to be an unfaithful "adaptation"!

U-Turn, featuring Alaya F in the lead role, is a guide to how to ruin a thrilling supernatural film with an unwanted climax twist.