The Girlfriend (2025) [Film Review] — Rashmika Mandanna Anchors a Tender, Tough Conversation

Rahul Ravindran’s The Girlfriend is a slow-burning Telugu drama that trades spectacle for scrutiny. Anchored by a quietly powerful turn from Rashmika Mandanna, the film unpacks how childhood patterns and cultural expectations shape adult relationships. It reframes a familiar college-romance setup into an incisive study of emotional entitlement and the cost of becoming who others expect you to be.

Story & Structure

A deceptively simple romance that opens into something more complex

At first glance, the narrative follows a classic arc: studious Bhooma (Rashmika), who loves literature and dreams of writing, meets Vikram (Dheekshith Shetty), the charismatic college favorite. What begins as tender courtship steadily hardens into a portrait of micromanagement and gentle coercion. Ravindran resists melodrama — instead, he accumulates small, telling moments (the odd chore, the unremarked compromises) that expose the slow ossification of a relationship. The film’s deliberate pace allows these episodes to breathe, which makes their cumulative effect unsettling and effective.

Performances

Rashmika’s restraint and Dheekshith’s unsettling charm make the film resonate

Rashmika Mandanna delivers one of her most nuanced performances, balancing vulnerability with growing self-awareness. She makes Bhooma’s interior life tangible — her literary impulses, her familial loyalties, and the quiet cost of adapting herself to someone else’s comfort. Dheekshith Shetty is equally compelling, offering charm that gradually reveals selfishness rather than villainy; his Vikram is recognisable and disturbingly relatable. Rohini, Anu Emmanuel, and Rao Ramesh add depth in small but memorable turns, enriching the film’s emotional ecosystem.

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Direction & Writing

A director-writer in sync — thoughtful, unflashy, and morally inquisitive

Ravindran wears both writer and director hats with confidence. The script avoids easy moralising; instead, it interrogates why certain partners are chosen and how nostalgia, entitlement, and gendered expectations shape those choices. Literary references — woven into Bhooma’s world — give the film texture without feeling showy. Ravindran’s direction prizes restraint: he lets silences, gestures, and visual metaphors speak, trusting the audience to make the moral leaps.

Visuals & Sound

Cinematic craft that complements, not competes with, the drama

Krishnan Vasant’s cinematography and the score by Hesham Abdul Wahab and Prashanth R. Vihari supply the film’s tonal backbone. Frames are composed to emphasize containment and escape — a courtyard becomes claustrophobic; tree roots become a literal and figurative trap. Music lifts key emotional beats without overplaying them. Small, symbolic images (a theater rehearsal as liberation; a mirror scene that registers internal fracture) linger after the credits roll.

Themes & Impact

A necessary mirror for contemporary relationship scripts

The Girlfriend interrogates a quiet social script — the preference for partners who fit into pre-existing familial roles, or who reproduce maternal comforts. The film doesn’t reduce men to villains; it examines upbringing, entitlement, and the normative fantasies that shape choice. Importantly, it asks whether love that asks one partner to shrink is worth preserving. That question, simple but profound, is this film’s moral engine.

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Verdict — Rating: 8.5/10

A brave, poignant Telugu drama that rewards patience and reflection

The Girlfriend is an emotionally intelligent film that prefers incision over spectacle. Its pacing asks patience, but the payoff is substantial: a layered portrait of a young woman’s struggle for selfhood and the ripple effects of emotional complacency. With assured direction, strong performances — especially from Rashmika — and attentive craft, Rahul Ravindran’s film is both timely and enduring. It doesn’t hand out easy answers, but it gives viewers the vocabulary to ask better questions about love, agency, and respect.