The Girlfriend (2025) Review😳
Hello, my Sun Petals!
Looking for a new movie to sink your teeth into!
How about this one!
Today we are going to be reviewing an Indian “romantic” drama, called “The Girlfriend”.
Released in 2025, this story focuses on Bhooma Devi (starring Rashmika Mandanna), an innocent and lively undergraduate that is passionate about her studies, until she catches the eye of Vikram (starring Dheekshith Shetty), the new popular heartthrob on campus. A relationship is formed between the two, but is it really what they both want? Is this really love or just control?
Follow me along Bhooma’s journey as she discovers self-worth, independence, and fighting against societal expectations.
Movie Recap:
The film begins with Bhooma, moving into the big city to pursue her MA in Literature. She settles into her new dorm and begins to make friends on campus. Bhooma hopes to be author of children’s books, hoping to grant confidence into young children similar to how authors gave her solace growing up.
We meet Vikram as he is joining the male dorms and he immediately gains popularity with his peers and the ladies.
While out at night, Virkram and Bhooma’s path cross in a road rage incident with an unknown third party. After heroically defending Bhooma’s honor, Virkram is beaten off screen by that same person. Bhooma helps clean his wounds and from there on Vikram was smitten.
To learn more about Bhooma, Vikram breaks into her dorm room, looking through her pictures and “To-do List”. Orchestrating hangs out with his and Bhooma’s friends and actively seeks her out in common areas to get closer to her.
This does not go unseen to everyone around campus, as friends start to tease Bhooma about flirting with Vikram, though she constantly argues that he is the one who initiates the conversation with her.
Virkram invites Bhooma to watch a movie with him in his dorm room, and he kisses her.
The following day Bhooma is left shocked and confused by this, but her friend congratulates her on finding a boyfriend.
Shocked by this news, Bhooma is told that Virkram has spread the news across campus that they are a couple.
Bhooma’s worries fall on deaf ears as everyone begins to celebrate their relationship.
In order not to make things complicated, Bhooma’s attempts to be in a relationship with Virkram. Feeding him, cleaning his room, and hanging out with his friends, but she is never truly comfortable.
Virkram started to control the friends Bhooma keeps through violence and invalidates Bhooma’s accomplishments through insults. Despite this, Bhooma still convinces herself that she can make things work between them.
Virkram surprises Bhooma by inviting her to meet his mother, but Bhooma witnesses how Virkram’s mother cooks and cleans without so much as speaking a word. Implying that woman of that generation, stay quiet and obeyed their husbands out of fear.
Now faced with the idea that could be her life if she is married to Vikram, Bhooma is thrown into a sense of anxiety. Knowing that she can never truly love Vikram, she is reminded of how resentful her own father felt towards her in her youth.
Bhooma’s father attempts to surprise Bhooma at her dorm but meet Vikram instead. The two erupt into a fight and Bhooma is seen as a disappointment in her father’s eyes. After a violent encounter. Bhooma is left disoriented about her true path in life. Catering to the happiness of both her father’s wishes and Vikram’s wishes has caused her to lose her dream.
Vikram tries to pressure Bhooma to marry him; Bhooma makes the ultimate decision to break up with him, leaving Vikram devastated.
In his rage and heartbreak, Vikram begins to target Bhooma in the halls, threatening her and broadcasting their intimacy throughout the college dorms.
Knowing that her character has been ruined, Bhooma falls into hysterics, blaming herself for being with Vikram.
While attempting to reconcile with her father, instead of receiving comfort, Bhooma is degraded by him. This final straw pushes Bhooma to go before the college at a social event and berate Vikram. Bhooma stands up for herself before everyone, unafraid and unyielding of what they think of her, officially putting a stop to Vikram’s attacks.
The film ends with a flash forward into the future; Bhooma is single in a high-paying job, confident amongst her father and peers, and traveling the world while developing her first book.
Review:
This film definitely went far beyond my expectations; it was more than just a romantic drama. It’s very clear that if the film was directed slightly differently, it could have been advertised as a romantic comedy.
While certain actions deemed Vikram as controlling, under rose-tinted glasses, his persistence to be with Bhooma would have been considered a “green flag”.
Virkram defended her honor the first moment they met, like a knight in shining armor.
It was actually romantic!
But like my mother, always said, “Not everything that shine’s is made of gold”
The situation with road rage incident has already hinted at violence and control.
The majority of the movie, we are experiencing life through Bhooma’s perspective, and from the beginning of the film we already heard her explicitly tell Virkram that she doesn’t want to be in a relationship.
The first red flag that went off for me was when Vikram and Bhooma first spoke.
“You’ll fall for me if I want you to. I’ll make you.”
Excuse me sir!?!?!
Is he serious!?!?
Bhooma’s Perspective:
All she wants to do is succeed in her field, get a job, and make friends along the way. Falling in love with Vikram wasn’t a part of the plan, and it’s heavily shown throughout the film that she was never fully okay with it both physically and mentally.
In the beginning of the film, she is shown happy, shy, and excited to settle into her college life. She mistaken Vikram’s advances as friendship and before she could blink, she was thrown into a full fledge relationship.
The news spread so fast; it felt as though Bhooma felt pressured to accept her fate as a girlfriend.
Imagine how the school would have viewed her if they knew she was intimate with a man that wasn’t her boyfriend. Societal expectations pressured her to accept Virkram, hoping that it wouldn’t ruin her reputation, but of course in the end she still suffered.
While I personally felt as though, Bhooma should have told the Virkram the truth before they got too serious, I must conclude that her need to meet everyone’s expectations, especially Virkram’s had driven her to lie to him and even herself about what she was feeling.
Vikram’s Perspective:
Vikram was so confident in the thought that he could get any girl; that he didn’t even ask Bhooma if she felt the same way, he didn’t ask for her consent when he kissed her…he didn’t even confess to Bhooma of his feelings despite telling everyone on campus otherwise.
He took so much pride in telling everyone that they we together, that he didn’t even acknowledge that he could potentially be rejected.
Considering how Virkram was raised, I cannot say; his current mindset is entirely his fault. Raised in a household where your mother waited on your hand and foot, it is not surprising that he expects the same from his girlfriend.
Moral of story Bhooma’s was able to find her confidence and self-worth despite being pushed into a corner of submission. This went beyond just the story of a romance but also the maturity in womanhood.
If you would like to see The Girlfriend (2025), it’s available on Netflix!
Leave a comment below, on your thoughts about this film!
See you next review!