Name: The Girlfriend
Genre: Drama, Romance
Released: 2025-11-07
Rating: 7
Cast: Rashmika Mandanna, Dheekshith Shetty, Rahul Ravindran, Rao Ramesh, Rohini

Belur

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A woman enters a relationship that seems safe and ordinary but gradually reveals hidden conditions and shifting power. She confronts what it means to be defined by someone else’s role and where identity begins. The journey traces connection, control and the moment when everything changes.

The Girlfriend

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The film follows Bhooma (Rashmika Mandanna), an MA student who falls for Vikram (Dheekshith Shetty). What starts as a typical college romance gradually evolves into a deeply layered exploration of love, self-realisation, and the price of setting personal boundaries.
Initially, Bhooma is the quintessential innocent — she’s frightened to even fight back after an accident. But over time her character transforms, she finds her voice, asserts herself against her boyfriend with conviction and boldness, and moves from feeling stuck—visibly symbolised when she’s held by tree roots—to breaking free. Rashmika beautifully captures the subtle emotional shifts, grounding Bhooma’s complex journey with nuance and conviction.
Dheekshith Shetty is formidable as Vikram — the controlling, authoritative boyfriend whose love morphs into rage, then revenge when Bhooma stands up for herself. His shift from charming partner to vengeful adversary highlights his acting prowess. Meanwhile, Rao Ramesh plays an overbearing single father whose control adds another layer of pressure, and Rohini makes a short but impactful appearance that leaves a lasting mark on the narrative.
At the heart of the story is the friendship between Bhooma and her friend Durga — played by Anu Emmanuel — which highlights how female bonds provide a safe space to discover oneself, beyond the gaze of the man they both love.
One poignant visual — Bhooma dropping her shawl in the climax — symbolises her transformation and emancipation from her past self. This film mirrors the realities of many young women by exposing affection disguised as control with parents and romantic partners and unveiling raw human emotions. With its emotionally powerful storytelling, director Rahul Ravindran crafts a gripping drama that doesn’t shy away from the uncomfortable truths of modern relationships.


“This is your story,” director Rahul Ravindran quite literally shouts at the top of his voice with this tale of strength, discovery, and self-ownership. Often, we get films that mirror relatable situations, relationships, and problems, but it isn’t very common for a film to show the other side. During a cinema trend full of “Usne aisa kiya,” here’s a film that talks about “Usne aisa kyun kiya”. This is a film about what’s cooking underneath the love story of an angry, controlling, entitled brat and a timid, underconfident, sweet girl like Preeti — excuse me, Bhooma. Here’s ‘The Girlfriend’.
Addressing sensitive matters like dominance, patriarchy, toxic masculinity, and gaslighting is important, but when they are explored through films, making them a compelling watch is just as crucial as putting the message across. ‘The Girlfriend’ is one such attempt to showcase the struggles of a young woman stuck in a relationship that drains the life out of her, pushing her to a point I’d like to call the ‘Chuck It’ moment — one where she finds her own voice. But is it a compelling film to watch? Let’s find out!
Bhooma Devi (Rashmika Mandanna) is an M.A. literature student who bumps into Vikram (Dheeksith Shetty), the college stud, in the middle of a fight with a policeman. When Bhooma gives Vikram first aid, conversations lead to an acquaintance, friendship, and eventually a ‘committed relationship’. How did this relationship begin? Is there love between the couple? Did Bhooma have a say in it? What baggage does she carry? Will she find her own voice (the best part)? The answers to these questions — and more — form the crux of the film.


Rahul Ravindran delivers yet another nuanced story about romance, but this time, it isn’t about love blooming — it’s about love burning down the spirit of self within ‘The Girlfriend’. He pens an impactful story that tests your patience in a compelling way. How? By building a connection between Bhooma and the viewers, who become the silent third person in this turbulent relationship — wishing well for Bhooma, wanting to help her out, and literally praying for her to get out of that relationship ASAP. Quite relatable! It was all dramatic, but relatable.

But it’s not just that — there’s so much more to the brilliance in writing. The story, however simple it may sound, beautifully portrays the complexities of the emotions Bhooma experiences. From laying the groundwork for her timid nature, to further establishing it through her relationship with her father, to the subtle integration of her aspirations — so subtle that they resonate with her shy and reserved demeanour — the emotional highs and the immediate falls leave a lasting impact.

Rahul impresses the most in this tale. His short but important role, where he quite literally voices his message, is a thoughtful addition too. However, one qualm about the story is Vikram’s characterisation. Apart from his appearance to an extent, there were no qualities that made him someone all the girls in the college would get excited about. Especially since all his vices, arrogance, anger issues, and insecurities are quite in the open. If these qualities make him appealing, God bless us all.
In terms of performances, Rashmika Mandanna impresses with her portrayal of the restrained Bhooma. She uses her innocent look to her advantage, effortlessly bringing across her character as a sweet, sundar, swamy type of girl. While the sought-after actor has faced trolling for her performances in the past, it can’t be denied that she has consistently strived to better her craft as a performer, and ‘The Girlfriend’ is the exam in which she passes with good grades.

In a particular scene, Rashmika’s character Bhooma goes through a panic attack, and the ‘Pushpa’ actor’s performance at that moment stands out. There are instances where the staged reactions and dialogue delivery seem slightly off the mark, but overall, Rashmika convincingly lives the part of Bhooma. Dheekshith Shetty delivers a strong performance as Vikram, managing to evoke feelings of disgust and hate towards his character. He definitely deserves more limelight for his portrayal of the extremely flawed boyfriend. The rest of the cast also do justice to their roles in the film.
‘The Girlfriend’ is more than a film — it’s an insight, and perhaps even a lesson. It doesn’t aim to preach; instead, it offers a raw, honest perspective into how love can sometimes consume more than it gives. Backed by engaging performances from Rashmika Mandanna and Dheekshith Shetty, and heartfelt direction by Rahul Ravindran, the film stands as a powerful reminder of the importance of self-worth and emotional independence.

It might make you uncomfortable, it might make you think — and that’s exactly why it deserves to be watched.

There’s a strange echo of Sukumar’s Arya (2004) in Rahul Ravindran’s Rashmika Mandanna-starrer The Girlfriend, even if the link between the two films might be purely inadvertent. Both films are set in a college and are about first loves, as it were, that are problematic, icky and revelatory at once. Both films pit a passive woman against decisive men who like to take charge of her life under the pretence of love, be it through manipulation or a kind of clinging benevolence. Both films bring the woman’s autonomy under the spotlight, but while the former comforts itself and its viewer in its state of denial, the latter inverts the perspective and turns confrontational in a way that is disquieting as well as refreshingly disarming.

It is, then, not far-fetched to see Bhooma, the character played by Rashmika Mandanna in The Girlfriend, as a narrative counterpart of Arya’s Geetha. If Geetha finds herself caught in between two men of varying emotional intelligence and needs, so does Bhooma. If Geetha feels repressed to assert her thoughts and disagreements in a world surrounded by a male shrill, so does Bhooma. The idea of love, be it of the romantic kind or the nurturing kind, being forced and burdened upon them is another unmistakable parallel between the two women. What fundamentally separates them, though, is the factor of accountability that one overlooks and the other accepts the onus of, highlighting the saviour syndrome that Indian cinema often employs to smooth over its gendered creases. As a result, The Girlfriend becomes a matter of pertinence as it goes about studying the skewed nature of the gender dynamics around us, and for all its other shortcomings, it still beams bright for opting to pursue its study from really up close. It is Bhooma’s story all the way.
Take into account, most importantly, the duality with which she is made to navigate her life. On the first day of her M.A. Literature studies, she announces coyly, to her professor that she wants to be a novelist one day. She wants to relay magic to others the way she felt while reading books growing up, she says, feeling mildly insecure about not knowing authors like Marquez or Hemingway. Yet, a defiance shows through fleetingly. At the same time, certain forces lurk around her that constantly put her in a place of discomfort, from where her suppressed fierceness couldn’t surface at all. Not a day goes by in her life that her father (Rao Ramesh) doesn’t remind her that he has had to sacrifice a lot to raise her as a single parent; there’s a great chance that if he forgets to do so, she will reiterate to herself without fail. Her boyfriend in college, Vikram (Dheekshith Shetty), is another kind of in-charge of her psyche, but seemingly cut from a similar cloth. The first time they meet, he tells her in his self-styled alpha way that he can “have her”, if he were to choose to do so. A few months later, he announces to the entire college that he kissed her in his hostel room. He decides if she can pay for herself at a mall, when she must meet his mother as part of their future marriage plans, and even has a say about the costume she wears in a college play she fares very well in. In turn, she gets to be his ‘mother’, the emblematic caring figure that boys like him are wired to fall in love with, who shall do his laundry, clean up after him and so on.
It is fascinating to note that The Girlfriend represents an India that is predominant as part of our discourses today, yet whose idea of love and ambition is skimmed over at best. Rather, it represents an India where getting to choose their life partner is still seen as the pinnacle of a “modern” woman’s sovereignty. The film is set in a time and place where self-worth, as a concept, is still remote, and the women, in particular, approach it with a heavy sense of self-reproach and futility. It shows in the way Bhooma is never able to voice her dreams to Vikram, who feels superior to the men of the previous generation only because he wouldn’t physically harm his partner. It shows in the way she feels a shiver of disgust and discomfort every time he lays his “manly” hands on her, caresses her without any idea of consent, and reinforces again and again that he, after all, is both her lover and protector. It also shows in the way she comes mighty close multiple times to tell him what she truly feels about him, but almost always backs out to save feelings.

The Girlfriend isn’t visually snazzy, and one gets the feeling that it is intentional in its design, even when it veers towards being overemotional. Instead, it allows its protagonist to guide us through the myriad emotions she endures concurrently, and it is in this inspired portrayal that Rashmika Mandanna reveals her own evolution as an actor. Her Bhooma is a spectator of her own life’s proceedings, and the dichotomy of her existence constantly oscillates in her eyes; Mandanna doesn’t overstate much when the writing is asking her to, and the charm lies in that restraint with which Bhooma is etched.

Dheekshith Shetty, in the same vein, is able to suffuse his Vikram with a personality and make him immature, entitled and real at the same time. Vikram, the way he is imagined, also runs the risk of being one-toned in that he sounds throughout the film as though he is trying very hard to communicate to us about the kind of guy he is. His insecurities, his rage and his emotional range, in general, are on the nose, no doubt, but the stuntedness of his character feels measured on the part of Rahul Ravindran’s writing. Anu Emanuel, in the role of the urban, on-trend Durga, is an interesting device to explore the core of the story. But the character is positioned for a defined purpose, which inhibits her from being more complex and realistic.
The Girlfriend is still an engaging watch because of its thematic richness. Rahul Ravindran is well aware of the point he is making, and it helps that he has the right clarity with which he wants to tell his story. He stays as close as possible to Bhooma without encroaching her space, meaning that he lets her decisions lead to an outcome she accepts wholeheartedly. Certain choices of the writer-director are tidy and formulaic, but they nevertheless support a story that pivots from the ordinary, and is resonant in many different ways. Watch this for Rashmika Mandanna’s heartfelt performance, if nothing else.

The Girlfriend - Trailer [TELUGU] | Rashmika Mandanna | Dheekshith Shetty | Rahul Ravindran | Hesham

#TheGirlfriend Teaser (Tamil) | Rashmika Mandanna | Dheekshith Shetty | Rahul R | Hesham A Wahab

The Girlfriend - Trailer [Hindi] | Rashmika Mandanna | Dheekshith Shetty | Rahul Ravindran | Hesham

Rashmika Mandanna is an Indian actress and model who works predominantly in Telugu and Kannada language films. She is a recipient of the Filmfare Award South and the SIIMA Award. She is known for her roles in Kirik Party and Geetha Govindam.

Rashmika Mandanna

Dheekshith Shetty is an actor best known for The Rose Villa (2021).

Dheekshith Shetty

Rahul Ravindran is an Indian actor, director, and screenwriter who works in Telugu and Tamil films. He made his lead debut in the Tamil film Moscowin Kavery, before playing leading roles as a man with cerebral palsy in Vinmeengal and as a mechanic in Soorya Nagaram.

Rahul Ravindran

Rao Ramesh is an actor who predominantly works in South Indian cinema. Best known for films like Gamyam, Kotha Bangaru Lokam, Avakai Biryani, The Great Warrior,  Duvvada Jagannadham and Magadheera among others, Ramesh has won several accolades for his performances.

The Girlfriend

The Girlfriend(2025)

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