Tu Yaa Main - Creating Content, Collabs and Crocs

Tu Yaa Main

Hindi - Thriller / Drama

143 mins

Netflix

Based on the Thai film The Pool, Tu Yaa Main is a surprisingly engaging survival thriller, once it stops behaving like an extended Instagram reel.

The film dedicates a generous (read: indulgent) portion of its run time to setting up its Gen Z leads: Avani Shah (Shanaya Kapoor), influencer a.k.a. “Ms Vanity,” and Maruti Kadam (Adarsh Gourav), aka "Flow", a  rapper still waiting for life to rhyme. They meet, they “collab" and before long, the film "slides a dm" into the rich-girl-meets-struggling-boy territory.

For a film marketed as a thriller, the romance is not unbearable, but definitely overfed. Scenes stretch, “family” moments come and go, and you find yourself reaching for that 2x button on the remote. Avani is rich, which conveniently unlocks a spontaneous monsoon getaway to her Goa villa, in peak storm season, of course.

Their bike breaks down along the Konkan coast. A helpful cop tows them to a hotel that looks like it is not just closing for the season, but checking out of existence.

In the morning, Flow heads out to fix the bike. Avani floats in the pool. The caretaker casually mentions that the pool is being drained. It rains. By the time Flow returns, Avani is lying injured at the bottom of a 20-foot-deep, now drained pool. He gets down to help. Shortly, a crocodile joins them and the film finally remembers what it signed up to be.

The same film that was languidly curating a Gen Z romance suddenly traps its characters in a survival nightmare, at last finding urgency. The last 80 minutes are tight, engaging, and refreshingly focused. The tension works, the survival mechanics are fun to watch, and the bickering between the two adds just enough friction without diluting the stakes.

Survival thrillers are rare in Indian cinema, which makes it mildly frustrating that the movie takes so long to arrive at its strongest stretch. 

Performance-wise, Adarsh Gourav is very good. Grounding the familiar “Gully Boy” notes with ease and selling the desperation when it matters. Shanaya Kapoor manages to keep Avani watchable, which, given how the character is written, is no small achievement.

Bejoy Nambiar has for long been a director of promise. His trademark, music video like cuts, stylised frames, intense characters are very much present. But he dials down just enough , showing better control over the tension. This is easily one of his watchable films. Credit also to the set design team for the the run down hotel and the hell hole of a swimming pool.

2x the influencer-romance excess and you have a solid survival thriller lurking underneath.