Tu Yaa Main review: A croc serves real lessons in this gen-z styled love-life drama!

Bejoy Nambiar’s Tu Yaa Main might just be the survival thriller we needed for the survival of an authentic Gen Z love story in Hindi cinema!

Two people with completely opposite personalities find themselves intensely drawn to each other in the middle of lonely, murky waters only to realise they are not alone, as a crocodile quietly joins them. That was the striking promo of Bejoy Nambiar’s Tu Yaa Main, and while it instantly hooked me, it also made me wary. In a world that feels increasingly terrifying to simply exist in, there’s a strange comfort in horror and survival dramas because at least there, you can fight the monster, defeat the Godzilla and win, something real life rarely allows. But my scepticism came from Hindi cinema’s ghost of the past that hasn’t always excelled at survival thrillers, raising the fear of yet another rehashed version of a foreign template. But then again, if a ghost can make you laugh while delivering a much-needed lesson, why can’t a crocodile teach you something about survival too? And that is precisely what Tu Yaa Main manages to do.

Adapted from the Thai thriller The Pool, the film opens with a cheeky warning: if you step into murky waters for a dirty game, the crocodile will want to tango too. Right on cue with the survival-thriller template, we are introduced to two individuals. In today’s world, where the stark difference in class is publicly measured by follower counts, both protagonists are content creators. Avani Shah, aka Miss Vanity (Shanaya Kapoor), is the Bandra-Juhu queen of high-rise luxury, boasting two million followers who consume her curated life. Maruti Kadam, aka Aala Flowpara (Adarsh Gourav), is the gully boy from Nalasopara, hustling his way through with a few thousand followers and relentless ambition. If she represents the glossy, “eat-the-rich” façade - lonely and hollow even inside a 10,000 sq ft bungalow, he is the stubborn dreamer from a cramped 10x10 kholi, desperate to make it big. Both are shaped by their own traumas, bonded in strange ways by shared denial, each chasing a make-believe life to escape the weight of the real one. It’s the perfect opposites attract for the today’s generation as she chases realness and he dreams. 

But life is meant to exist beyond clichés, isn’t it? Real life isn’t a film that wraps itself up in a neat, happy ending. And that’s what makes Tu Yaa Main interesting as it’s perhaps the first time I’ve seen a film take the representation of Gen Z seriously. It’s not just Abhishek Bandekar’s writing steeped in the language of collabs and sliding into DMs or the way the characters are shaped; it’s embedded in the very grammar of the storytelling itself. If Kho Gaye Hum Kahan explored how social media shapes this generation’s ideas of love, life, and relationships, Tu Yaa Main pushes that thought further. In a world governed by follower counts, it’s easy to like someone, easy to follow them but are we brave enough to share, to subscribe, to truly commit? 

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And as the film keeps this point it doesn’t patronise its generation or scold them for living online. Instead, it mirrors them. The first half unfolds like an extended reel - quick, glossy snapshots of Avani and Maruti’s romance - the meet-cute, the flirtation, the situationship limbo, the honeymoon glow, bonding over shared trauma until reality interrupts the algorithm. What begins at the pace of a reel is suddenly forced to survive beyond it. And that tonal shift defines the second half. The survival thriller kicks in, and every moment becomes a near-death experience. Stranded in a drained swimming pool at an abandoned resort with a crocodile circling them, the only way out is forward and that lies in being together. 

And interestingly, the performances split along compelling lines. Shanaya Kapoor carries much of the physical weight of the film as she dives underwater to search for escape routes, strapping together makeshift tools, constantly strategising survival in a stairless, deep pool. She plays fear with focus. Adarsh Gourav, meanwhile, becomes the emotional spine, moving fluidly between humour, frustration, vulnerability, and panic. If Kapoor grounds the action, Gourav elevates the emotional stakes, shapeshifting through moods with impressive ease. Together, they balance the film’s tonal duality.

Yet the loudest voice in the film is the background score. Nambiar, known for choreographing stylistic emotional frames to rhythm, goes all in. Music blends with sound design, building tension before puncturing it with sharp jump scares. Debashis Remy Dalai’s cinematography and editor Priyank Prem Kumar’s crisp cuts create a visual pulse as frames that shake you, immerse you, and then snap you back to jolting reality. The film often feels like a series of music videos stitched together with purpose, moving to its own rhythm, turning style into storytelling. It couldn’t get more Gen Z than this! 

For a fleeting moment, I was reminded of LifeofPi as the crocodile lingers without attacking, and you begin to wonder if the film will drift into philosophical territory. But when the beat drops and the music fades, the real horror begins, reminding us that a survival story has only one rule - survive! And perhaps that’s exactly what feels missing in modern love. Social media has taught us to give our hearts and comments easily, but a relationship survives only when you’re willing to share and save. In the end, it isn’t about who wins - TuYaaMainbut about how a tu and main learn to become a we. And isn’t that really the point? 

Tu Yaa Main is currently in theatres near you!