The Girlfriend: A Superb Rashmika Mandanna Headlines This Sensitive Take On Toxic Relationships
Rahul Ravindran's The Girlfriend is like the antidote to Arjun Reddy. It is the balm many young women need, it is a film telling them it sees them, and understands where they come from.
Promo poster for The Girlfriend.
Last Updated: 08.51 PM, Nov 07, 2025
CERTAIN PHRASES are difficult to showcase visually. I can immediately think of two — ‘When the walls are closing in’ and ‘Iron grip’. But after watching Rahul Ravindran’s searing, slow-burn The Girlfriend, I know it is possible. Rahul effortlessly manages to do that with the help of his tech team and fabulous lead actors — look out for the one where Bhooma (chef’s kiss for Rashmika Mandanna) feels suffocated and rushes into a room, turns the tap on, and panics when she literally feels a square room turn into a narrow rectangle; and all the scenes where Vikram (an excellent Dheekshith Shetty makes you loathe him with every fibre) throws his arm around Bhooma and pulls her in.
Films about toxic relationships are common, but those done right are very very rare — in recent times, I can think of the Tamil Lover, and then this. There’s, after all, a very thin line between intense love and one that veers around possessiveness and control. The biggest reasons why The Girlfriend works are the writing that never strays from its intent, lead cast, cinematographer Krishnan Vasant, editor Chota K Prasad, composer Hesham Abdul Wahab and Prashanth R Vihar’s haunting, aching background score. If any of them had missed the brief even by a small margin, this would not have been the film we got.
Why The Girlfriend works is because it shows how even someone not so young can be manipulated. Bhooma is a post-graduate student who has had her share of college life. Before she knows it, a girl who was focused on doing well in college and joining all the clubs finds herself being kissed by a boy, who announces to her and the world that she’s his girlfriend. The background score in these portions is wonderful — you almost feel like you’re entering a quagmire, there’s none of the bubbliness of youth or the heart-lifting music of fresh love. As you see, Bhooma is alienated from everyone else, including her avakkai pickle friends — that’s a bond unlike any other — and from sitting in Vicky’s room and watching a movie and writing her goals and things to do on a white board, she is now cleaning and folding his clothes and keeping track of when his bike has to go for servicing.
The film reminds you of the many young girls you’ve seen in life’s journey who veer off the path due to toxic relationships, and who wonder where that part of their life went. Every high in college cut short by a cruel line from the ‘boyfriend’, every clap that turns into a verbal slap.
Rahul plays Sudhir, the head of the department of English, the kind of professor every student needs — who always puts the student’s welfare over everything else. If you’ve seen Rahul on social media, you know those lines were not dialogues, but just him being him. It is he who nudges Bhooma to take back her agency from all those who have it — Vikram and her lovable, but controlling single parent father (Rao Ramesh).
The Girlfriend is like the antidote to Arjun Reddy. It is the balm many young women need; it is a film telling them it sees them and understands where they come from. I don’t think anyone but Rahul could have written this with the integrity it needs. It might have looked performative had the intent been forced.
Many a time, we end up getting swept up by life and its many forces. Sometimes, we all need a silent reminder to show us a mirror — in this film, literally too. That mirror is the superlative Rohini (who played a lovely role in Rahul’s debut Chi La Sow too), who, in her silence, shows Bhooma what her entire future could look like. Durga (Anu Emmanuel) speaks home truths too, because she sees the bigger picture.
Like all bullies, Vikram cannot handle rejection, and does what he can do best — slut shame Bhooma. It takes the two men in her life, and their actions — verbal by her father and physical by Vikram — that help Bhooma realise her worth.
The ending portions might seem dramatic, but, god, it is what women have dreamt of for ages — to tell those who tormented them who they really are.
If I had an issue, it is that I would have liked for Bhooma’s father to realise he crossed a line when he spoke to her the way he did. But, in the end credits, you realise the power equation has changed between Bhooma and her father. She’s the caregiver now!
Is this a career best for Rashmika? I won’t say that, because from her debut, Kirik Party, the actor has shown that all she needs is a good script and director. She does sincerity, vulnerability and controlled fury beautifully, and has a long road ahead. Dheekshith, who charmed audiences with the Kannada Dia and Blink, shows a side of himself no one knew existed — a control freak who ‘owns’ a girlfriend. I really wish he got good roles in Kannada too — he can act well, and dances like a dream.
With Chi La Sow and this, actor and writer-director Rahul proves that one can be sensitive, not sappy, and yet make a film that’s engaging. Go watch!