Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
No love lost here
Some movies stick with you because they are clever, beautiful, or bold. The Girlfriend (2025) lingers because it feels uncomfortably familiar. It intrudes into rooms we keep locked. For many women, it is not fiction; it’s memory. Written and directed by Rahul Ravindran, the Telugu film pretends to be a love story. Yet it serves as a psychological examination of what happens when women confuse obsession with love, while society cheers them on as they fade away.
I didn’t just recognize this film; I felt it in my body.
Bhooma Devi (Rashmika Mandanna) meets Vikram (Dheekshith Shetty) on campus. Bhooma comes from a small village where she was raised with restrictions; this is her first foray into an independent life, away from her strict and conservative father. She is kind and curious, and trying to figure out her way around, but he misreads it as interest.
Vikram is not introduced as a villain. The guy who is the stud of the college, the guy who everyone likes, the guy other girls want. He is charming, confident, suave and attractive, and he knows it. He is the kind of guy who disguises his opinions as intellect.
And the world applauds. Vikram is the guy everyone wants. If he chooses you, shouldn’t you be grateful?
Vikram never yells or hits her. But he cuts with condescending compliments and logic that traps. He calls Bhooma brilliant but interrupts her. He supports her ambition but never engages with it. His affection flattens her.
She begins to shrink. The laughter fades. The joy dims.
Until one day, it doesn’t.
And because he never raises his voice or hits her, nobody calls it abuse. Least of all him.
What makes The Girlfriend hit harder is not just Vikram. It is the society around him that keeps nodding along.
When obsession is romanticized
In Telugu cinema, this is not new. For decades, films have taught us that a man teasing a woman, leering at her, following her around, and refusing to leave her alone is romance. Stalking has been sold as persistence. Discomfort has been rewritten as desire. And if a woman says no, the hero simply tries harder until she gives in.
We grew up watching this. Many of us internalized it before we were old enough to question it.
Then came Arjun Reddy.
That film did not invent toxic masculinity, but it did package it beautifully. Great music. High production value. A charismatic lead. And at the center of it, a man whose obsession, anger, and entitlement were framed as proof of deep love. Arjun’s volatility was called passion. His lack of control was excused as heartbreak. When he hits his girlfriend, it is explained away as passionate love and that love gives you the right to hit your partner. Arjun’s actions were glorified and the film asked us to empathize with him far more than it asked us to question him.
That is where the danger lies.
When obsession is romanticized, it stops looking like a warning sign and starts looking like intensity. When cruelty is wrapped in vulnerability, it becomes forgivable. Films like Arjun Reddy did not just reflect society. They reinforced it. They taught men that their rage is understandable and taught women that enduring it is love.
The Girlfriend walks into that same cultural space and quietly says no.
No
Vikram never presents himself as aggressive. He is soft-spoken, reasonable. He loves his mom and wants his girlfriend to be like her. He talks about the future like it is already decided. Marriage, children, stability. All the right words. But always on his terms.
Bhooma’s achievements are acknowledged but never celebrated on their own. They are folded into a future where she exists as an extension of him. Her ambitions are treated like phases. Cute stories. Things she will eventually grow out of.
This is how control survives. Not through force, but through affection with conditions.
So she leaves
The film understands something many people miss. Emotional harm does not need violence to be real. It only needs repetition. A thousand small moments where your voice feels less important than keeping the peace. Where you start editing yourself because it feels easier than being misunderstood.
The Girlfriend does not give us a dramatic confrontation. Bhooma’s rebellion is quieter. She sees the life being laid out for her and realizes it is not one she chose.
So she leaves.
That choice matters. Especially in a culture where women are told to adjust, to compromise, and to endure. Where sacrifice is glorified, normalized and expected from a woman. Especially when cinema has trained us to believe that a man who wants you badly enough deserves you.
Choosing yourself is not framed as a triumph here. It is framed as survival. And that feels honest.
Lead cast keeps it real
If the film has a weakness, it is that Bhooma is written as almost too passive for too long. Her shift toward clarity feels faster than it would in real life. In reality, leaving a relationship like this takes time. Doubt. Backsliding. Unlearning years of conditioning.
But Rashmika carries the weight of that silence well. There is a weariness in her performance that feels real. And Deekshith Shetty is disturbingly convincing as Vikram. He is not monstrous. He is familiar and that is makes him frightening.
What The Girlfriend ultimately asks is uncomfortable.
Why do we keep normalizing this?
Why do we still celebrate men who cannot handle a woman’s autonomy? Why do we praise control when it comes with charm? Why are women still told that being chosen is more important than choosing themselves?
This film does not give easy answers. It simply holds up a mirror.
And if you have ever been in a relationship where love felt like walking on eggshells, where care came with strings, and where your world slowly got smaller, this film will recognize you.
It recognized me.
The Girlfriend is not perfect. But it is necessary. In an industry that has spent decades teaching us to romanticize behavior that should have been questioned, this film chooses to sit with the discomfort instead.
Sometimes that is the bravest thing a story can do.
The Girlfriend is now streaming on Netflix.