It's certainly a good time if you're an actress in Kollywood. From the time where female leads are often used as a 'distraction' from the original plot and perform duets and 'loosu ponnu' characters in movies, we are in a completely new spectrum in terms of their significance in a Tamil movie nowadays.
From Keerthy Suresh's Mahanati to Nayanthara's Imaikka Nodigal, Tamil cinema has already seen female centric movies to grace the silver screen this year. Joining the list is Samantha's U-Turn, the tamil remake of the Kannada classic, made by Pawan Kumar (also the director for the tamil version).
The story, largely starts literally from the first frame in where the roads of Velacheri is shown and the camera follows the curves of the road (probably longer than it should have) and finally stopping in the particular U-turn of the road, which forms the central crux of the film.
The film eventually gets into the character establishment mood, with Samantha playing easily one of her easiest roles in her career, which of a helpless independent girl who is in the middle of a murder mystery. She cries, exasperated, gets angry and shows vulnerability as expected of the top actress, but something feels still incomplete. It easily feels that someone who is asked to come into a police investigation could have used her 'press/journalism' background to get out of the issue far more easily than the problems she faced in the initial stages.
That being said, U-Turn, starting as a murder mystery quickly turns into a supernatural horror, which was a pleasant surprise. The inclusion of Aadhi, who comes in another typical typecasted police officer role (he probably sleepwalked from his another role in Eeram), Bhoomika, Narain and Aadukalam Naren all add value to the story, with all characters having a particular role to play in bringing the story forward.
U-Turn does come with it's own set of flaws though. For starters, the plot twists feels very forced towards the end. Although logic should largely be kept aside in a supernatural films, but the story somehow demanded abit more strong writing in the climax. The movie, as it was a bilingual also had issues with the lip sync, as some of the Telegu scenes were used.
In summary, U-Turn is a welcoming addition to the list of murder mystery/supernatural films in Tamil cinema. It is also a fantastic addition to the list of female centric movies in Kollywood at the moment. It is to be encouraged, with more directors now will now think about a women as their lead, and this will only diversify the stories that we will set to hear soon.
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