U Turn Review: The Zee5 film stars Alaya F as a journalism intern Radhika Bakshi, Priyanshu Painyuli as Arjun Sinha, Ashim Gulati as Aditya Iyer, Rajesh Sharma as HSP Saxena, Manurishi Chadha as Inderjeet Singh Dhillon among others. It is based on Pawan Kumar’s Kannada film of the same name. The Hindi supernatural thriller is directed by Arif Khan, and the screenplay is by Parveez Sheikh. Anubhav Bansal has worked as the film’s cinematographer.
U Turn 2023 has a runtime of at least 100 minutes. It is produced by Balaji Motions Pictures.
U Turn Zee 5 Movie Review Has Mild Spoilers
The opening scene shows a man on a bike moving the concrete blocks of the NTPC Flyover and taking a U-turn, which isn’t allowed. He doesn’t place the blocks back in their place. A car from the other side collides with the blocks and faces a terrible accident. This happened in 2019.
Zee5’s U Turn takes a 2-year time jump. It is shown that whoever moves the concrete block on the NTPC Flyover in Chandigarh dies of suicide. Radhika Bakshi, a journalism intern, is working on the story of keeping a tab on people who break the rules by moving the concrete block on the flyover and taking a U-turn. But the multiple deaths make her the prime suspect.
Radhika is adamant about finding the truth about the flyover and related deaths. While hiding a big secret about her life, she works with cop Arjun Sinha to find the truth. It is suspected that the deaths are not by suicide but can be an evil act. Is it truly any evil spirits behind the deaths of the people who break the rule on the flyover? We find out everything in the end.
Before I tell you if the movie is good or not, let me tell you that the Kannada film U-Turn has been remake in Telugu, Tamil, Bengali, Sinhala, Filipino and even Malayalam. This is the seventh remake. It shows how impactful the original must have been, inspiring so many filmmakers to retell the story in different languages. But is the Hindi version any good? Sadly, no.
Alaya F’s U-Turn starts on a gripping note, involving you in suspense around the deaths, the secrets, the suspicions and the possibility of these people being murdered by some evil energy. Initially, fingers are raised at Radhika as she takes a deep interest in people who break the rules. But as the narrative progresses, she isn’t the only prime suspect.
With a decent first hour, the makers convince us that whoever died in the 2019 car accident on the flyover is haunting and killing these people. But the true revelation is something unexpected and doesn’t make sense. Director Arif Khan and writer Parveez Sheikh have twisted the climax, messing up the third act completely.
The issue with the climax is it makes the entire one-hour full of loopholes. Why didn’t they explain the presence of a small girl when we are shown someone’s death in 20 minutes? How will they explain the death of a man in the elevator who starts acting weird? Even if they tried reasoning the death of an advocate, it makes no sense. The staging seems off.
The climax of U Turn on Zee5 leaves us feeling cheated. The execution and acting are also poor. Alaya F, who managed to impress us initially, couldn’t perform well during the final showdown/breakdown scene. It looks like a scene from an overdramatic Hindi daily soap. I was fine with how they showed that a journalism intern was hardly in the office and wandering outside without ever submitting a story. But with a climax like that, I can’t let go of several bizarre flaws in the first half.
It has now become a trend to mix movie genres, only to surprise us in the end with something unexpected. However, when done badly, it leaves a viewer annoyed. I had the same issues with Blurr and Gaslight. Although, neither of the movies even has a good first hour. If the climax weren’t twisted entirely and acted much better, U-Turn would’ve been a good supernatural movie.
U Turn Review: Final Thoughts
Overall, the Zee5 movie keeps you hooked on its mysterious journey for the first hour. But the last 30 minutes ruin everything. The wrong path chosen by the makers to ‘startle’ us with an unanticipated twist leaves you with a distasteful ending.
The movie is now streaming on Zee5.
Also Read: The Nurse Review: Brilliant Pacing Keeps the Suspense Going
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