Tu Yaa Main review: Bejoy Nambiar’s Tu Yaa Main opens with panic. Two young lovers are trapped inside an empty swimming pool. Their trembling voices echo against the cold blue tiles. Something moves in the shadows below them. And within minutes, the film makes sure that it is not just another glossy influencer drama, but a survival thriller with teeth.
Scroll down to read our full review of Shanaya Kapoor and Adarsh Gourav starrer Tu Yaa Main!
Tu Yaa Main plot
The film follows Avani Shah, aka Miss Vanity (Shanaya Kapoor), a high-profile social media influencer with millions of followers. Alongside her is Maruti Kadam (Adarsh Gourav), an aspiring rapper from Nalasopara who performs under the stage name Aala Flowpara. They meet for a collaboration, and attraction simmers. The two youngsters move ahead with light yet believable flirtation. She is drawn to his grounded simplicity. He is fascinated by her polished, aspirational world. Our age-old rich girl meets poor boy love tale.
Things take a sharp turn when they get stranded at an isolated property, trapped inside a drained swimming pool. Soon, they realise they are not alone. A crocodile has entered the same space. From that point on, Tu Yaa Main shifts into survival mode. The tone darkens. The flirtation evaporates. Every movement becomes calculated.
The film is an adaptation of the Thai thriller The Pool, yet Nambiar injects it with a distinctly Mumbai sensibility. There are subtle nods to class differences. Maruti’s frustration slips out in a wry line about his life turning “from Gully Boy to Sairat.” It’s funny. It’s also telling.
Tu Yaa Mian review: Performances
Adarsh Gourav delivers the stronger performance. He commits fully to Maruti’s transformation from charming dreamer to desperate survivor. His physical acting stands out. You see exhaustion in his posture. You hear fear in his breathing.
Shanaya Kapoor fares better than she did in her debut film, Aankhon Ki Gustaakhiyan. However, she fails to add restraint to Avani, thanks to her awful dialogue delivery.
Tu Yaa Main review: What’s good?
One of the film’s biggest strengths lies in its technical execution. Reportedly, the makers used a real crocodile instead of relying heavily on CGI. The creature feels weighty and unpredictable. Cinematographer Remy Dalai uses the confined pool setting effectively. The space feels suffocating. Even when the characters stand still, danger seems close.
Nambiar’s direction remains confident. He enjoys placing his characters in moral and emotional distress. Here, survival carries metaphorical weight. Avani’s identity as an influencer becomes irrelevant inside that pool. Without followers or validation, she must confront herself.
WTF: Where’s the Flaw?
The film’s pacing is helter-skelter. The first half lingers on romance and music-driven sequences longer than necessary. These scenes do establish a little emotional stake but end up completely diluting the urgency required for a classic survival thriller. At two hours and twenty-five minutes, the runtime feels excessive for such a lean premise. A tighter edit would have made the impact sharper.
Tu Yaa Main commits to its genre with sincerity. It delivers genuine moments of shock and discomfort. Even when it borders on absurdity, it manages to keep viewers engaged. However, that is short-lived. The crocodile dominates the screen longer than most Hindi films would dare. And once again, humans struggle to coexist with it.
Watch it after a few months in an edited YouTube short.