Crime thrillers are only fun to watch if the story is presented interestingly. U Turn happens to be a story based in the same genre, but we can’t guarantee the viewer will find it interesting because it felt like the makers steered away from the logic part of it and drove straight into a story that required plenty of suspension of disbelief and presented a commercial film that does not cater to the masses as well. Directed by Arif Khan, the movie is about people who take an illegal U-turn from a bridge, and they end up dead mysteriously. Who is behind this crime, and why are they committing this heinous killing?
Spoilers Ahead
Radhika’s Search For The Truth
The movie begins with a man driving along the NTPC flyover in Chandigarh when he is asked to come back to a certain place by the caller on his phone. The man moves the stones meant to be used as dividers on the flyover, takes an illegal U-turn, and drives down the other side of the road, forgetting to put the stones back in their original positions. A car driving by the bridge, unable to see the stones placed right in the middle of the road, crashes because of them. The person in the car immediately dies. A year or two later, Radhika Bakshi, who has joined as an intern with a local newspaper, is working on the story about people not surviving the accidents caused by the stones. These stones are still being moved for the illegal U-turn, and neither the RTO nor the police are doing anything to make sure this is curbed. The mortality rates of such accidents are high, and as a reporter, Radhika needs answers from the authorities and the people who took this illegal turn. She gets in touch with a government official who took that illegal U-turn to learn more about his mindset. We have no idea why Radhika would want to interview people who have committed this act. They will not be in a position to remember anything. The man, though, was found dead by the police the next day. According to the initial reports, the man has committed suicide unless they find some other clues. Since Radhika was the last person to have met up with him as per the residence register, she was brought in for questioning. Radhika is clueless about why she is being dragged to the police station. In her opinion, she was just doing her job as a journalist, which is asking questions.
Radhika is asked about how she gets information about the people taking a U-turn. She lets the police know of the beggar on the bridge, who writes down the vehicle number, and gives it to Radhika, who gets the home address from an RTO officer. As the police investigate all the vehicle numbers that she has gathered, they come to know that all of them have committed suicide, and it cannot be a coincidence. The police team, headed by an officer named Arjun, is trying to find out how suicides in a spree could happen when only Radhika knew of the addresses. Radhika is also clueless and claims to be innocent. She never had any intention of harming anyone. She does claim to have a dislike for people who break the rules, but she never goes to the extent of killing anyone. She would want them to be punished, but not in such a way that these people wouldn’t see the light of day the next morning.
With brand new information about the new person who had taken the illegal U-turn, the police headed out to hunt the next victim. As the police inform the next victim about remaining safe and sound for the night, in a matter of minutes, the same man dies by throwing himself off the balcony, or at least it looks as if the man killed himself. The police are at a dead end with no evidence in hand.
There is a police officer in this team named Indarjeet Singh Dhillon who barfs at the sight of blood even though he has spent crucial years of his life in forensics. The man is supposed to be Mr. Know-it-all, and he is the one who lets his teammates know that this might be the work of some paranormal entity. But he is also the person who knows all about police work because he has been in the force for a while. He is the go-to man whenever any inquiry work must be done. With the investigating team reaching a dead end in this matter, Radhika tries to stop the men who are about to take a U-turn on that bridge. They do not fall for her pleas, and in a fit, Radhika also takes a U-turn just to experiment with what would happen to her. Radhika volunteered to understand who would confront her and in what form. This is the risk she is ready to take because she has no other option.
‘U Turn’ Ending Explained – Who Was The Killer That Radhika And Arjun Were Looking For?
The boys who were caught taking the U-turn were put behind bars to keep them safe from any untoward incidents. But things go awry when the boys are killed in the lockup rather brutally. The police are in shock to see what exactly is following these people and what is leading them to kill themselves in such a way. At Radhika’s home, she is haunted by her deceased brother. This is the trauma that she lives with. She and her brother were in a car accident years ago, and she was the one who survived while her brother, unfortunately, passed away. She never got over this tragedy and has been guilty of not being the one who drove the car. Radhika is either hallucinating or is confronted by her brother Raghav’s ghost, which lets her know that it was never her fault and that she should get over the guilt that is slowly killing her. Radhika wonders if the people who committed suicide were followed by a ghost, just like she was confronted by Raghav, that could potentially push them to commit suicide. But Raghav was only here to free her from the guilt. Radhika was quick to understand that no ghost or paranormal activity was surrounding the victim; it was just a serial killer who played with the victim’s mind and pushed them to commit suicide.
But again, the police and Radhika come to a dead end on who might be the serial killer after all. There was no evidence found on them during the post-mortem as well, which makes it difficult for the investigating team to find a concrete lead that would indicate their involvement with the serial killer. Radhika and Arjun change track and start investigating the people who died in the accident; maybe from there, they could find someone who might be killing these people who are taking the illegal U-turn. One accident that was not reported in any newspaper, as per Radhika, is that of Sunita Singh. Her very young daughter died in that accident, too, of which there was no report. Radhika and Arjun are adamant about getting the lead, and somehow they are sure Sunita Singh’s information might take them somewhere. They want to know why Sunita Singh’s death was not covered and why there is no record of it in the police stations as well. There is something there that is making them pursue it. The car that she was driving belonged to someone else, but the car owner offered to look for the papers that could prove who she was and give them her address. This lead will lead them to a breakthrough.
As the investigation is on, Arjun concludes that someone other than Radhika knew of the address, namely the RTO officer named Harry. They could get more information from him, which makes sense. As Arjun is headed toward Radhika’s home, he meets with an accident. Radhika, at the same time, gets the car papers, in which it is mentioned that Sunita Singh’s husband is the officer from the investigation team, Indarjeet Singh Dhillon. As both conclude the man has something to do with the killings, he kidnaps Radhika. He lets her know that the moment she mentions the possibility of doing a visceral report on the dead bodies, it would probably help the police get more information about what the victims consumed. Dhillon was quick to conclude that Radhika was getting closer to finding out that he was the serial killer. Sunita Singh was his wife, who died in the accident along with their child. Being a policeman, he did not find any help to solve this case as soon as possible and find the culprit. That is why he took it upon himself to kill those people who always took the illegal U-turn. Dhillon managed to get hold of the addresses of the victims from Harry, the RTO officer and Indrajeet’s brother. He killed those people because he felt it was the right way to handle a person who did not value other people’s lives over taking a U-turn to save some time. He wanted them to suffer the same fate as his wife and daughter. He used a fear drug, aka Blue Daisy, on them, which pushed them to face their fears and threats, and that led to them killing themselves. The man used this drug on every person he knew who was taking a U-turn and managed to get rid of people who were breaking the rules and endangering other lives as well.
With the same fear drug, he plans to kill Radhika, but she manages to escape and runs off to the roof of the building, where she is held hostage. She lets him know that he could have helped her or the police solve this matter the legal way instead of going all vigilante. No one deserves to die, and people taking the illegal U-turn should not be executed but apprehended. There could have been so many ways to deal with the matter, but killing people is not the solution. Dhillon realizes that if she survives, it would be the end of him, and he starts hallucinating his wife and daughter. With the urge to join them on the other side , he falls off the building, killing himself. Dhillon knew his arrest would be humiliating. He figured killing himself would be a better option. With Dhillon not alive, Arjun and Radhika’s search for the serial killer is now over. They have nothing more to do but be shocked that someone among them was carrying out the crime. It is disappointing for them not to get Dhillon alive with the serial killer out of the way. Radhika is going back to finishing her story and probably letting the citizens know their actions could have serious repercussions. The last scene of “U-Turn” has Radhika calling the colleague, and he happens to be the man who moves the stones on the road to go back at the beginning of the film. His actions led to Dhillon’s wife and child dying in an accident caused by stones on the road. Dhillon could, unfortunately, never trace this case back to Radhika and her colleague.
U Turn is now streaming on Zee-5 with subtitles.