There are two couples in this wickedly enjoyable movie. The first pairing is that of Adarsh Gourav (as Maruti) and Shanaya Kapoor (as Avni). So what about the second couple? That’s something unexpected and you don’t want to know about “them” until after you’ve seen the movie, but the other unexpected thing here is the extended and very well-done love story in what we think is going to be a creature feature. All is well with Maruti and Avni, until a crisis takes them to a run-down hotel, and that’s where the crocodile makes its appearance. The leads work wonderfully together. They make us care about their love in the romance portions. They make us care for their lives in the reptilian portions. The director is in fine form, and he’s backed by first-rate writing and a top-notch technical team. It’s been a while since a film was so cheesily entertaining and also thoughtful and moving.
And now for the longer review, which may contain spoilers. The credits tell us that Tu Yaa Main is an adaptation of a Thai film named The Pool. This version is written by Abhishek Bandekar, and Bejoy opens with a scene like the one that opened Jaws. It’s a bloody scene that tells us what’s in store. It’s also a placeholder, a reminder – because we won’t return to this creature-feature territory for a while. Until then, we are invited to spend time with Maruti and Avni. This is a classic poor boy-rich girl scenario: she is posh, he is not. She likes sushi. He prefers pav bhaji. But the Internet is the great equaliser. Both are content creators. He is a rapper who makes reels. She is an influencer. And something about him intrigues her. Maybe it’s the way he performs. Maybe it’s the shared love for rhyme. She writes poetry, and he speaks poetry when she’s trying out something dangerous from a height. He says, “Gir jayegi, mar jayegi, meri jawani jail mein kat jayegi.”
Or maybe they’re trying to escape their respective prisons. Avni is impulsive and she likes danger, as she proves by sitting in front of Maruti on his bike, facing him, and later, by walking on the parapet of a terrace. Maybe Maruti is a similar kind of kick. He represents everything that her luxurious lifestyle isn’t, and his modest home is filled with love, which she lacks. As for Maruti, Avni represents everything he wants to escape to. What I liked most about this relationship is its sweetness. Both are basically nice people. Avni is not the typical arrogant snob that the movies show rich youngsters to be. She doesn’t look down on Maruti. And he isn’t ashamed of where he comes from. He may aspire for greater things, but he loves his mother who makes snacks that are sold in local shops. When Avni walks into a Ganpati celebration in Maruti’s locality, the scene isn’t sensationalised for easy drama. The class difference isn’t put in quotes. It’s treated very casually, as casually as the relationship unfolds.
Tu Yaa Main pulls off a tricky tightrope act. The makers know that part of the film is a genre piece that needs cheesiness. They don’t reject tropes like the bit where someone literally stares at the mouth of danger instead of taking a few steps back. We know what’s coming right then, and we half-scream/ half-laugh when it happens. At another point, we get a visual of the beyond-cheesy crocodile scene from Ganga Jamuna Saraswathi, and it’s fun to hear the early love portions scored to a Paap Ki Duniya song whose tune Bappi Lahiri took from a cheesy chartbuster by The Bangles. And yet, when the romance takes a serious turn, the reference is a genuinely swoony romantic number from Yaara Dildaara. Maruti and Avni face serious relationship issues when she finds out she is pregnant. And soon enough, a couple of crocodiles – yes, a couple, where, again, the female is pregnant – heads into a swimming pool that our human couple is trapped in. In films like Jaws, man heads out into the predator’s environment. Here, it’s the opposite. Prateek Rajagopal helps with a super soundtrack that pulls out all the stops when it comes to both the love story and the creature feature. The vibe of the music is young and fearless.
The creature-feature portions work because the preceding drama builds a solid foundation that makes us care about this couple. There’s a superb scene that shows us how rebellion is easy to stage – until someone puts the fear of God in you. Maruti refuses to listen to Avni’s sister when she asks him to back off, but when their very middle-class driver talks about how his musical dreams were dashed when he got married, Maruti is shaken to the core. Much later, when he has to borrow money from Avni, he feels a twinge that he did not feel earlier. Maruti and Avni like each other, sure. But unlike the typical love story, we are never really sure whether Maruti and Avni are really in love, or whether it’s a phase, or whether they are acting out. And that mild uncertainty keeps their relationship realistic and grounded and always interesting. Slowly, Avni becomes the more likeable person, while Maruti keeps getting into a zone that appears self-centred, even if it’s clear that he does care for Avni. These contradictions make the couple very human. They are not rich and poor archetypes. They are people who happen to be rich and poor.
Shanaya and Adarsh work very well together. Her princessy air gives way to surprising levels of vulnerability, and his good-natured ‘community dude’ attitude hides surprising levels of self-preservation. Eventually, the enclosed space of the swimming pool becomes some sort of therapist’s office, where Maruti and Avni have to work their issues out. The crocodiles are a metaphor. Maruti and Avni have to survive the reptiles, which are really some kind of symbolism for what’s lurking under the waters in this relationship. The shitty hotel and the shitty pool and the shitty storm that’s raging outside – all become a reminder of how life can turn upside down in a second. Avni has experienced water-based trauma as a child, and Maruti is almost drowned in a bathtub in a playful manner – though it’s not playful for him because he cannot swim. All this foreshadowing pays off – and in the present, even when someone else tries to help Maruti and Avni, it doesn’t work. They have to figure this out on their own. Like the crocodiles, they have to learn how to be a single-minded unit. If they survive, will Maruti and Avni continue to be a couple? We can’t say, but what could have been just a fun genre movie turns out to be a fun genre movie plus a solid film about what it means to be in a relationship. That’s a nice surprise.
