Tu Yaa Main review: Like, Share, Survive!...

Tu Yaa Main review: Like, Share, Survive!...

‘Tu Yaa Main’ - Love, Reels and a Collab gone horribly wrong makes the combustible chemistry between Adarsh Gaurav and Shanaya Kapoor palpable when its struggles for every breath against a monster worth the ticket price!

Tu Yaa Main movie review

First things first. I am a sucker for beast feasts - a sub-genre that Hollywood has mastered supremely with Croc fests like Lake Placid, Primeval, Black Water, Rogue and the 2019’s Crawl. ‘Tu Yaa Main’, produced by Aanand L Rai and Bhanusali Films, and helmed by Bejoy Nambiar forays into this genre with an exceedingly well-told narrative and a controlled self-awareness by borrowing the plot from the 2018 Thai Thriller, ‘The Pool’.

It begins with showing Maruti Kadam and Avani Shah (played by Gourav and Shanaya) stranded in a 20-feet drained pool of a derelict resort with no one to help in the vicinity and switches into flashback mode – Two social media influencers from starkly contrasting worlds in the monsoon lashed city of Mumbai meet and instant sparks fly. What starts off as a casual hook up soon transforms into a combustible romance that is underlined by 0% toxic and 100% satisfaction and screams for a collab, between Flow and Miss Vanity.

When the ugly reality of their social statuses bites, the couple elopes to a coastal town marred with incessant rains and soon finds themselves in the pool struggling for each breath against the monstrous creature.   

Creating an analogy for failing in life and uncertain future out of the pool, Nambiar creates a pinchingly relatable romance plunged and stranded in depths and an edge-of-the-seat experience with the ferocious monster underlined by its voracious appetite. Nambiar is known for his astounding craft and ‘Tu Yaa Main’ benefits enormously from the solid visuals of the city smudged by monsoon, drawing a contrast between the bustling Nala Sopara and the posh Andheri. 

While relying on the nostalgic 90s’ melodies (Chori Chori Yun from ‘Paap ki Duniya’ and Tum Ho Hamri O Manzil from ‘Yaara Dildara’) and a jazzy techno background track for the cutesy first hour, he pushes us into the dread marked by crawl and the carnage and ensures you squirm in your seat.

In an unrelenting, unending, and bloodied fight against the carnivore, Adarsh Gourav and Shanaya Kapoor deliver compelling performances. Their gasp feels real, their struggle feels genuine against the CGI-created “Gutter ka Godzilla” as Gourav’s Ala Flowpara from Nala Sopara calls it in one of the tense moments.

Wearing the slum on his sleeves and sweat that adorns his shoulders, Gourav pitches a charming swag as the wannabe rapper that complements aptly with Kapoor’s reclusive influencer with a 2.3M follower count

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