Rahul Desai
Arif Khan’s U Turn is the seventh remake of Pawan Kumar’s Kannada-language U Turn (2016) in seven years, two of which are Sinhalese and Filipino productions.
The premise – of a journalist getting investigated for the mysterious deaths of rule-breaking motorists who take illegal u-turns on a Bangalore flyover – was a potent cocktail of social horror and supernatural drama.
But I’d be angry if I were Pawan Kumar today. The Hindi-language remake feels like the sort of mess that appears at the end of a Chinese Whispers chain.
I’m all for adaptations and updates. I don’t believe in the theory that the original, by virtue of being the source material, is necessarily the best version of a story. But the problem with this ‘upgrade’ is that it’s just silly and immature.
The twists make little sense. The changes are anything but an improvement. The film-making lacks curiosity and sophistication.
The film tries to be oversmart by presenting itself as a supernatural thriller, only to reveal that the truth is far more ordinary (and mediocre). Usually, we see a few scenes or characters that are red herrings to outwit the viewer. Here, the entire film is a red herring.
The film itself mirrors one of those shady offenders on the flyover – what with its illegal u-turn on tone, treatment and logic. Naturally, it dies a slow and painful death for being a bad boy.
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