November 10, 2025
by Carla Hay
Directed by Rahul Ravindran
Telugu with subtitles
Culture Representation: Taking place in India, the dramatic film “The Girlfriend” features an all-Asian cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: A woman in her early 20s gets trapped in a relationship with an abusive and controlling boyfriend.
Culture Audience: “The Girlfriend” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and dramas about toxic romances.
“The Girlfriend” is prone to melodrama that is saved by Rashmika Mandanna’s memorable performance. Despite an over-the-top showdown scene, the movie remains grounded by the serious issue of being trapped in a toxic relationship. There’s a love triangle in “The Girlfriend,” but the movie should be commended for not making the love triangle completely cliché.
Written and directed by Rahul Ravindran, “The Girlfriend” has many elements that have been seen and done before in other movies about a woman who falls in love with the wrong person and ends up in an abusive relationship. The movie is also a little too long (150 minutes) for a plot that’s fairly simple. However, “The Girlfriend” has mostly credible performances (except for cringeworthy hamminess for one principal cast member) and can serve as a cautionary tale about what warning signs to look for in an abuser.
“The Girlfriend” takes place during two years in the life of grad student Bhooma Devi (played by Mandanna), who attends Ramalingaiah College in an unnamed city in India. Bhooma, who is in her early 20s, is enrolled in the college to get her master of arts degree in English literature. Her dream is to write books aimed at teens and young adults. The movie begins on the first day of her first year as a grad student at Ramalingaiah College, where she lives in an on-campus hostel.
Bhooma is friendly, a little bit introverted, and very inexperienced, when it comes to dating. She comes from a strict household, where her widower father S. Vara Prasad (played by Rao Ramesh), who is a medical doctor, has high expectations for her to succeed. He is very protective and supportive of her, but he also has conservative views of how much parents can and should interfere in an adult child’s romantic relationships.
Someone else who is in her first year as a Ramalingaiah College grad student is Durga (played by Anu Emmanuel), who is studying to become an actress. In many ways, Durga is the opposite of Bhooma: Durga is sassy, confident and a shameless flirter. Bhooma dresses modestly in traditional clothes. Durga likes to wear a lot of makeup and trendy fashions.
The third person in the movie’s love triangle is another Ramalingaiah College grad student: Vikram, nicknamed Vicky (played by Dheekshith Shetty), is studying computer science. He’s the charismatic leader of a tight-knit group of male friends, who hang out together like fraternity brothers. Over time, it becomes apparent that Vikram acts more like a destructive cult leader to the five other guys who are in the group.
Vikram first catches Durga’s attention during an outdoor gathering on campus, where Vikram is showing off his dance moves to a crowd of students. Durga is instantly smitten. She’s also the type of person who isn’t shy about letting Vikram know that she’s interested in dating him. However, Vikram tells Durga that he only likes her as a platonic friend.
Vikram is interested in dating Bhooma, but she keeps him at an emotional distance because she’s a little shy and she wants to focus on her academic studies. Vikram is the type of person who doesn’t like to hear “no” for an answer when he wants something. He continues to pursue Bhooma and only shows her his charming side when he courts her.
The movie then fast-forwards a year later. Durga still has an unrequited crush on Vikram, who is still trying to get Bhooma to date him. In this pivotal year, Bhooma sees Vikram’s dark side, but she ultimately ignores these warning signs and succumbs to his relentless courtship tactics.
The first time that Bhooma sees Vikram’s nasty and violent temper, it’s on a night where she and a female friend are riding a moped together. The two women get stuck on a street when the moped breaks down. A creepy middle-aged guy in a car begins to sexually harass the two women.
Vikram and his sycophantic buddies happen to be nearby and see what’s happening. Vikram leads the way in physically roughing up the harasser until the terrified man tearfully says he’s sorry and drives away. Bhooma and her friend see this incident as Vikram “coming to the rescue” and are grateful for the help.
It turns out the harasser was an off-duty police officer, who retaliates by getting his cop friends to arrest Vikram and his five pals on assault charges. While in police custody, the pals experience police brutality, with Vikram getting the worst of the police beatings. Vikram ends up in a hospital. And so now, Vikram not only looks like a “rescuer” to Bhooma, but he also looks like a “martyr.”
When Bhooma visits Vikram in the hospital, she treats some of his wounds and shows signs that she might be attracted to him. Vikram uses this apparent attraction to his advantage by flirting with her in a way that is too aggressive for Bhooma. She expresses discomfort about the way he is behaving with her, so she abruptly leaves.
Bhooma isn’t impressed with Vikram during another incident where Vikram uses violence to intimidate someone. A fellow college student named Vinay (played by Mahaboob Basha), who lives in the same hostel as Bhooma, has a crush on Bhooma and tells her. She politely tells Vinay that she’s not interested in dating him. Vikram overhears this conversation.
Vikram then orders Bhooma to stay away from Vinay. Vikram tells Bhooma, “I’m madly in love with you.” And he says that she has to stay away from Vinay, or else it will make Vikram look bad if Bhooma stays in touch with Vinay. Bhooma is appalled by this request and says so to Vikram.
After Bhooma leaves, Vikram and his goon friends go to Vinay’s dorm room and physically assault him. Vikram slaps Vinay and yells at Vinay to stay away from Bhooma. Because Vinay’s door is open, Bhooma happens to see this assault and rushes into the room to stop this attack. She is disgusted with Vikram’s extreme and violent reaction and seems to want nothing to do with Vikram.
Bhooma makes an apology to Vinay, but Vinay’s reaction shows that he’s no gentleman either. Vinay is embarrassed about being assaulted in front of Bhooma. He angrily orders Bhooma to leave his room and acts like the assault was somehow her fault.
After this assault, Vikram uses a typical abuser tactic to try to excuse his actions: He makes profuse apologies to Bhooma and “love bombs” her with intense declarations of love for her. Over time, this tactic works, because Vikram is able to wear down Bhooma, who is flattered by his attention. Vikram and Bhooma end up dating each other and become lovers.
Meanwhile, Durga and Bhooma are in the same theater class, where the class is rehearsing for a stage play. Durga excels and is considered the “star” of the class. By contrast, Bhooma’s acting is stiff, and she has trouble remembering her lines.
In many other movies, this would be the point in the story where Durga would be portrayed as a spiteful rival who uses Bhooma’s inferior acting talent as a reason to humiliate Bhooma. But that doesn’t happen. Bhooma, who doesn’t know at this point that Durga has a crush on Vikram, compliments Durga on her acting skills and asks Durga for help to improve Bhooma’s acting skills.
Durga generously helps Bhooma. And the two women end up becoming friends. But how long can Durga keep her crush on Vikram a secret from Bhooma? That question is eventually answered in the movie.
Most of the “The Girlfriend” shows the turbulent relationship between Vikram and Bhooma. It’s Bhooma’s first big romance and it’s confusing to her. On the one hand, Vikram can be exciting and romantic. On the other hand, he’s very controlling and jealous. And when he gets angry, look out: Someone could get hurt emotionally and/or physically.
Vikram uses another typical abuser tactic of controlling a love partner by isolating her from her family and other loved ones. Needless to say, Bhooma’s father doesn’t approve of Vikram. And it causes a rift between Bhooma and her father.
Vikram also tries to squash Bhooma’s joy when Bhooma enjoys something that isn’t about him. Bhooma’s acting improves, and she gets a positive reaction from the audience when she performs in the play. Vikram sees this reaction, and he’s jealous, so he pressures Bhooma to quit the play and stop acting.
None of this should be surprising to anyone who’s seen movies about these types of abusive relationships. The only questions that viewers of “The Girlfriend” will have is: “Will Dhooma break up with Vikram and reclaim her self-esteem to live the life that she deserves? And if so, how is this breakup going to happen?”
Much of “The Girlfriend” relies on Mandanna’s ability to make Dhooma a character who is easy to root for during her increasingly terrible relationship with Vikram. Unfortunately, Shetty’s performance as Vikram often looks like excessively fake acting, especially when Vikram goes into rages. The supporting cast members are sufficiently adequate, with Emmanuel getting a few moments to shine as Durga.
There’s a very effective scene in “The Girlfriend” when Vikram forces Dhooma to skip her classes one day so that he can take her on a trip to visit his widowed mother (played by Rohini), who doesn’t have a name in the movie. This review won’t reveal too many details about this visit except to say that it’s an eye-opening experience for Dhooma, who begins to see more clearly what she wants and does not want in a romantic relationship.
“The Girlfriend” is a title that seems intended to be somewhat ironic. When Dhooma and Vikram begin dating each other, she thinks that being Vikram’s girlfriend is something that she wants as part of her identity. But as time goes on, she begins to understand that there’s more to her than being someone’s girlfriend—especially if the person claiming to love her is actually mistreating her. Her journey and this movie’s story are ultimately a tribute to anyone who has the self-esteem and courage to stop or prevent an abusive relationship.
Prathyangira Cinemas released “The Girlfriend” in select U.S. cinemas and in India on November 7, 2025.
