U Turn (2016 film)

U Turn
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Pawan Kumar
Written by	Pawan Kumar
Produced by	Pawan Kumar
Starring	Shraddha Srinath Roger Narayan Radhika Chetan Dileep Raj
Cinematography	Advaitha Gurumurthy Satya Hegde Siddhartha Nuni
Edited by	Suresh Armugam
Music by	Poornachandra Tejaswi
Production company	Pawan Kumar Studios
Distributed by	Mysore Talkies
Release date	20 May 2016 (2016-05-20)
Running time	121 minutes
Country	India
Language	Kannada
Budget	₹2.5 crore[1]

U Turn is a 2016 Indian Kannada-language supernatural thriller film written, produced and directed by Pawan Kumar. It stars Shraddha Srinath in the lead role. Roger Narayan, Dileep Raj and Radhika Chetan feature in supporting roles. The plot revolves around the death of motorists who break a traffic rule at a particular flyover in Bangalore and subsequent pinning down of the culprit by an intern journalist and police inspector duo. The film received critical acclaim and being remade a lot of times in different languages.

U-Turn was first remade in Malayalam in 2017 as Careful. Director Pawan Kumar remade it into a Telugu-Tamil bilingual in 2018 with the same title - thereby making it the fourth Kannada film to be remade in three other South Indian languages after School Master, Sampathige Savaal and Devara Kannu.^[2][3]

The movie was remade in Sinhala in 2019 also titled U Turn - thereby becoming the second Kannada movie to be remade in Sinhala after Anuraga Aralithu.^[4]

The Filipino remake with the same name was released on pay-to-view basis on 30 October 2020.^[5][6][7] With that, U Turn became the first Indian movie to be remade in Filipino.^[8][9]

The Bengali remake titled Flyover was released on 2 April 2021.^[10]

Ekta Kapoor produced the Hindi remake with the same title which released on 28 April 2023.^[11] With that, it became the third Indian movie to be remade in seven languages after Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana and Anuraga Aralithu.^[12][13] It was the seventh Kannada movie to be remade in a foreign language ^[14] and the second Kannada movie to be remade in two foreign languages after Anuraga Aralithu.^[15][16]

Plot

Rachana, an intern with The Indian Express, is working on an article on the accidents at a flyover in Bengaluru. She also has a crush on the crime reporter Aditya, whose help she seeks for research material on accidents on the flyover. She finds that each day some motorists move the concrete blocks that partition the road just to take a quick U-turn and avoid the traffic. They don’t move them back and the blocks are left to lie randomly on the road leading to many accidents. A homeless man sitting on the flyover notes down the vehicle numbers of commuters who violate the rule to take the U-turn and gives the list to Rachana. She obtains the details of the culprits using her contact in the traffic department, with the intention of confronting them for their "short-cut" and writing an article for the paper. Her attempt to meet the first person on the list goes in vain.

Later the same day, the police take her into custody and accuse her of killing the same person she wanted to meet. She is shocked and tells her side of the story. Though the senior police officer rejects it, sub-inspector Nayak finds it believable and does some investigation. It is revealed that all the persons Rachana has on her list have committed suicide. They also noticed that they have committed suicide the same day they took the wrong "u-turn". Rachana and Nayak find another number has been noted by the homeless man which is to be delivered to Rachana the next day. The duo trace the address and try to rescue the man, a lawyer, who has taken the u-turn on the same day. As nothing seems suspicious, both leave only to encounter the very death of the lawyer whom they came to rescue.

Later Rachana tries to confront the homeless man for the injuries in the fly-over. Meanwhile, she sees two young men violate the U-Turn and reports it to Nayak. Nayak locks them up in an old Police lock-up to save them. But they start fighting and eventually die under the nose of the police.

With no way of finding the real cause of the death of the culprits, Rachana herself takes the wrong u-turn and waits for something to happen. The one who has been killing the culprits is a ghost named Maya, because she and her daughter Aarna died in an accident due to the concrete roadblocks that were moved by the culprits in order to make way for their u-turn. Using her supernatural powers, Maya tries to kill Rachana as well. But Rachana promises to find the person who was responsible for Maya's death. Maya agrees. Rachana, with the help of Nayak, tries to find the person who moved the blocks on the day of Maya's accident. They find out the phone number and address of the person who moved the block. Rachana writes this on a balloon and leaves it on the flyover for Maya to find. She then invites her boyfriend Aditya for dinner.

During dinner, Rachana tries to call the number she found earlier. It turns out to be Aditya's work mobile number. Devastated, she confronts Aditya and informs him that due to his negligence a mother and daughter lost their lives. Aditya says it was not him who made the U-turn. He merely exchanged his bike with his friend. In the final twist, it is revealed that the man who moved the block was Maya's own husband. Maya's ghost is waiting in Aditya's house to kill him when Maya's husband whom Rachana has informed about the events turns up and explains to Maya that it was because of him that they lost their lives. He then tries to commit suicide by jumping from the balcony. Maya's ghost saves him and tells him that his punishment is to suffer in this world without his wife and daughter.

Cast

• Shraddha Srinath as Rachana
• Roger Narayan as Sub-inspector Nayak^[17]
• Radhika Chetan as Maya
• Dileep Raj as Aditya
• Skanda Ashok as Ritesh
• Krishna Hebbale as Inspector Sudhakar
• Pratibha Nandakumar as lady constable Sarojamma
• Pramod Shetty as Sundar
• Aarna Kulkarni as Aarna
• Chethan D'Souza as Raju
• Kennedi Gopalan as the Homeless flyover man
• Ram Manjjonaath as Police Officer Muddanna
• Rajath Mayee as auto rickshaw driver
• Surya Vasishta as Doctor

Production

According to the director, the script of the movie took place on the road. He says, "U-Turn happened in July when I used to drop my daughter Lucy to school and traffic used to be high. I used to park in front of her school for more than an hour and used the time to write the script."^[18]

U-Turn was produced under Pawan Kumar's then newly launched banner PK Studios, has Poornachandra Tejaswi's music, Satya Hegde, Advitha Gurumurthy and Siddharth Nuni's cinematography and Suresh's editing.^[19]

Reception

Sunayana Suresh of The Times of India rated the film four out of five, and wrote, "The film can be read on philosophical and symbolic levels with leitmotifs and what not, but the triumph is that it even appeals to the lay viewer who seeks thrill and entertainment and nothing more."^[20] Shyam Prasad S of Bangalore Mirror wrote, "It is what happens post interval that makes or breaks any film. Here, Pawan Kumar takes the easier route and robs U-Turn of becoming a great film."^[21] J Hurtado of ScreenAnarchy wrote, "Pawan Kumar's U TURN Will Keep You Guessing Until The Last Minute. U-Turn is a film that constantly challenges and defies categorization in the service of telling its own story."^[22]

Remakes

U Turn was remade in Malayalam in 2017 as Careful.^[23] It was later remade into a Telugu-Tamil bilingual in 2018 with the same title by Pawan Kumar himself.^[24][25] The film was also officially remade in Sri Lanka in Sinhala in 2019 with the same title.^[26] The Filipino remake with the same title was released on 30 October 2020.^[7][27] The film was remade in Bengali as Flyover and released on 2 April 2021.^[28][26][29] The Hindi remake with the same title^[30] was released on 28 April 2023 by Ekta Kapoor. The director had revealed that the rights for the Malay language remake were sold out.^[31] He also revealed that there are plans to remake the film in Chinese, Thai, Marathi and Gujarati.^[32]

References

1. Shekhar, Divya; Joshi, Bharath; V, Nirupama (10 June 2016). "Actor-director Rakshit Shetty feels the challenge ahead is to keep the audience occupied". The Economic Times. Archived from the original on 17 August 2022. Retrieved 5 March 2017.
2. "Pawan Kumar's 'U Turn' to be remade in Filipino". The News Minute. 16 March 2020. Archived from the original on 25 March 2020. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
3. "'U Turn' To Be Remade In Hindi By Ekta Kapoor". 14 March 2019. Archived from the original on 5 June 2020. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
4. "ಅತೀ ಹೆಚ್ಚು ಭಾಷೆಗೆ 'ರಿಮೇಕ್‌' ಆದ ಕನ್ನಡ ಸಿನಿಮಾಗಳ ಮಾಹಿತಿ ಇಲ್ಲಿದೆ!". Vijaya Karnataka. Archived from the original on 27 October 2020. Retrieved 20 September 2020.
5. "Kim Chiu's horror flick 'U-Turn' coming to Sky Pay-Per-View". Manila Bulletin. 27 October 2020. Archived from the original on 1 November 2020. Retrieved 26 November 2020.
6. "Pawan Kumar's U-Turn goes global". Cinema Express. 15 March 2020. Archived from the original on 28 November 2023. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
7. "Halloween watchlist edition". The Manila Times. 30 October 2020. Archived from the original on 2 December 2020. Retrieved 26 November 2020.
8. "'ಯು ಟರ್ನ್' ಸಿನಿಮಾ ಮಾಡಿರುವ ಈ ದಾಖಲೆ ಭಾರತದಲ್ಲೇ ಮೊದಲು!". Vijaya Karnataka (in Kannada). Archived from the original on 30 October 2020. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
9. "What intrigued Enrico Santos about Pawan Kumar's U Turn". The Times of India. 15 March 2020. Archived from the original on 11 December 2020. Retrieved 20 September 2020.
10. "Koel Mallick stars in the Bengali remake of Pawan Kumar's U Turn". The Times of India. 20 March 2021.
11. "Ekta Kapoor to produce Hindi remake of thriller 'U-Turn'; project - starring Alaya F - to go on floors tomorrow". The Economic Times. 5 July 2021. Archived from the original on 31 July 2021. Retrieved 5 July 2021.
12. "Record created: 'U-Turn' to be remade in Filipino language". NewsKarnataka. 16 March 2020. Archived from the original on 23 January 2024. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
13. "Pawan Kumar's U Turn movie now in Filipino, remade officially in 5 languages". Cinimirror. 14 October 2020. Archived from the original on 4 December 2020. Retrieved 27 November 2020.
14. "From 'Anuraga Aralithu' to 'U Turn': Kannada movies that were remade in foreign languages". The Times of India. 10 June 2020. Archived from the original on 24 April 2024. Retrieved 31 October 2020.
15. "From 'School Master' to 'U Turn': A look at Kannada films remade in other Indian languages". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 30 October 2020. Retrieved 20 September 2020.
16. "Kannada Movies: ಪರಭಾಷೆಗಳಿಗೆ ರಿಮೇಕ್ ಆಗಿ ಸೌಂಡು ಮಾಡುತ್ತಿವೆ ಕನ್ನಡದ ಈ ಸಿನಿಮಾಗಳು!". Vijay Karnataka (in Kannada). Archived from the original on 22 April 2024. Retrieved 22 April 2024.
17. K., Bhumika (24 March 2016). "Making the U-turn home". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 16 July 2020. Retrieved 16 July 2020.
18. "It's U-Turn for Pawan as Nicotine Waits". The New Indian Express. 4 April 2015. Archived from the original on 28 February 2016. Retrieved 28 February 2016.
19. "'Lucia' director Pawan Kumar's 'U Turn' trailer released [VIDEO]". International Business Times, India Edition. 28 January 2016. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 28 February 2016.
20. Suresh, Sunayana (20 May 2016). "U Turn Movie Review". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 23 May 2016. Retrieved 28 May 2016.
21. Shyam Prasad S (21 May 2016). "An urban legend is born". Bangalore Mirror. Archived from the original on 25 February 2018. Retrieved 25 February 2018.
22. Hurtado, J (22 May 2016). "Review: Pawan Kumar's U-TURN Will Keep You Guessing Until The Last Minute". ScreenAnarchy. Archived from the original on 22 October 2016. Retrieved 22 October 2016.
23. "Careful movie review: Vijay Babu and Jomol impress in a flawed but interesting thriller". Firstpost. 4 June 2017. Archived from the original on 20 August 2019. Retrieved 30 July 2018.
24. "Samantha starts shooting for 'U-Turn' remake". The Times of India. 18 February 2018. Archived from the original on 19 February 2018. Retrieved 25 February 2018.
25. "Samantha Akkineni's U-Turn to release on September 13". 23 July 2018. Archived from the original on 23 July 2018. Retrieved 30 July 2018.
26. "ಸಿಂಹಳ ಭಾಷೆಯಲ್ಲೂ ಬರಲಿದೆ ಕನ್ನಡದ 'ಯೂ ಟರ್ನ್'! | Kannada movie U turn will be remake in Srilanka Simhala language". kannada.asianetnews.com. Archived from the original on 15 December 2019. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
27. Biong, Ian (5 December 2019). "Kim Chiu, JM De Guzman, Tony Labrusca to star in remake of hit Indian thriller". INQUIRER.net. Archived from the original on 14 January 2020. Retrieved 13 March 2020.
28. "ফের থ্রিলারে কোয়েল মল্লিক, ছবির মুক্তি এপ্রিলে". Archived from the original on 19 March 2021. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
29. "Koel Mallick stars in the Bengali remake of Pawan Kumar's U Turn". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 20 March 2021. Retrieved 21 March 2021.
30. "Ekta Kapoor ropes in Alaya F for Hindi remake of Kannada film U-Turn". Archived from the original on 9 July 2021. Retrieved 5 July 2021.
31. "Bollywood to remake Kannada hit U-Turn". Deccan Herald. 22 March 2019. Archived from the original on 29 October 2020. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
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External links

• Official website
• U Turn at IMDb