Movie Review: U Turn (Kannada)

Director Pawan Kumar (of Lucia fame) opens U Turn with a clever prelude — an upside down view of the concrete blocks that divide a flyover in Bangalore as the words Karma Karma... keep repeating itself ominously in the background. Is U Turn then a philosophical movie about cosmic order that broaches on the idea of cause and effect? Or is it a thrilling murder mystery? Or does it have anything to do with the supernatural? Or is it about the dangers of taking illegal u-turns and flouting traffic rules?

It's a bit of all of these, and the blend, recalling to mind Mysskin's terrific Pisaasu, has its payoffs and drawbacks. Like with the recent Dhuruvangal Pathinaaru, Pawan Kumar sets up an interesting puzzle, only to squander the opportunity with twists and turns that are flat out generic and lazy. It makes the movie curiously unbalanced, an intriguing beginning leading into a gripping, thunderous middle followed by a middling, familiar finish. U Turn may not take a complete wrong turn in terms of employing the genre elements per se (the recurring U motif that appears all throughout the movie is unsettling), but is neither wholly satisfying, making you wish the climax hadn't been so underwhelming and far removed from reality.