The Girlfriend Review

The Girlfriend (2025) Telugu Movie: What's Behind

Rashmika Mandanna became a national crush with her performances in films like Pushpa, Animal, Chhaava etc .Now, Rashmika for the first time is coming up with a female oriented film titled The Girlfriend. The film directed by Rahul Ravindran is releasing on 7 November 2025. The Girlfriend OTT rights have been bagged for a fancy sum by Netflix and streaming will be after the end of its thearrical run. Let us see whether Rashmika Mandanna cast a magic spell and mesmerized movie lovers with her performance. 

The Girlfriend (2025) Telugu Movie: Story Review

The Girlfriend story revolves around a young girl and the happenings in her life when she falls in love with a handsome guy. Bhuma (Rashmika Mandanna) joins Ranalingaiah College to pursue her PG in literature and realise her dreams. 

In the meantime, she comes across a handsome guy Vicky (Deekshith Shetty) and love blossoms between them. Where this leads to and what complications she faces and how Vicky's mother (Rohini), Professor Sudheer (Rahul Ravindran), her friend Durga (Anu Emmanuel), her father who is a cop, Vara Prasad (Rao Ramesh) form the twists and turns in the relationship. 

Rashmika's The Girlfriend Movie: Artists Review

Rashmika Mandanna came up with a sensational performance. Even those who used to mock her looks and acting skills will be blownaway with her performance. She virtually lived in the role and one sees only Bhumi and not Rashmika. Right from the first scene till the last, she carried the film and elevated every second taking viewers along with her into the story.

As usual she delivered dialogues with ease and came up with breathtaking expressions and emotions. There are many standout scenes in the film which make viewers whistle and root for her. She showed variations in her expressions and she killed it all just with her expressions in the eyes without even delivering any dialogues.

She came up with the apt body langauge and showed how a timid girl who cannot say No or refuse anything, tranforms herself fighting back when being pushed to wall after her character is assassinated in a realistic and natural manner. Rashmika is the soul and heart of the film and without Rashmika , The Girlfriend movie would have gone for a toss.

Her screen presence is terrific and impactful and viewers cannot blink their eyes as they will miss something from Rashmika's riveting performance. She showed how a girl breaks all shackles when pushed to the wall mustering all the courage when no one stands for her.

Deekshith Shetty showed variations in his expressions and emotions and elevated the scenes with his performance. He with his mannerisms and screen presence made an impact doing justice to his role. He looked charming and handsome on the screen and acted well as an extremely possessive lover. 

Rao Ramesh is good in the role of a strict father who has his own way. The role is tailormade for him and he did it in his own style adding essence to it. Anu Emmanuel looked gorgeous and beautiful on the screen and she did well in her role.

Rahul Ravindran performed in a cool and subtle manner. He delivered dialogues in a natural and realistic manner. He performed well in the role of an elderly professor who guided students well. Rohini played a small but important role. Others performed according to their roles. 

The Girlfriend (2025) Movie: Technicians Review

The Girlfriend story is penned by Rahul Ravindran. Rahul Ravindran came up with a youthful story that revolves around love, possession and after effects. Viewers will be mistaken at the first instance by looking at the soft title like The Girlfriend. He starts the narration with youthful elements and within few minutes, the blossoming of love and the college backdrop, reminds one of the bold film like Arjun Reddy.

While that film highlighted the possessiveness of the protagonist, here he highlighted how the over possessiveness of the protagonist impacts the life of a girl who aspires to make a career for herself fighting it out with her overprotective and male chauvinist father. The first half is loaded with youthful elements like romance, college drama apart from blossoming of love and it ends with the decent interval bang setting the stage for the second half.

Rahul Ravindran takes the emotions to the next level in the second half highlighting the after effects of the breakup and how the girl who is suffocated and unable to say No at the first instance reacts and finally overcomes her fears. Some of the scenes here are dragged to an extent and the climax, one gets a feeling that though powerful and terrific is rushed to the core much to the disappointment of all.

Rahul Ravindran came up with a story that has few predictable elements and it is not like such stories are unheard of in Tollywood. However he with his racy screenplay and deft direction executed the scenes to near perfection on the screen. Though there are only four to five characters, he ensured that there are no preachy elements or forced comedy or flashback in the name of emotions. He didnot devaite from the script and did full justice to the story with his narration.

Hesham Abdul Wahab came up with a soulful music. The songs are situational and shot in a beautiful, appealing and colorful manner.  Prashanth Vihari made a terrific impact which his background score taking the intensity levels in the scenes to the next stage.

The cinematography of Krishnan Vasant is good and showed the film in a visually rich manner using the color combinations and camera angles to the nice effect.

The editing of Chota K Prasad is sleek and except for few scenes here and there, the tempo is maintained ensuring the smooth flow of the narration. Dialogues are realistic, natural, powerful and hardhitting. Production values are good.

The Girlfriend Movie: Advantages

• Rashmika Mandanna 
• Emotions
• BGM 
• Cinematography 

The Girlfriend Movie: Disadvantages

• Predictable Elements
• Repetitive Scenes

The Girlfriend (2025) Telugu Movie: Rating Analysis

Altogether, The Girlfriend turns out to be a hard-hitting love story. Rashmika Mandanna came up with the performance of the life time and infact virtually lived in the role. It is quite near to the award winning performance and she will be definitely in race for few awards for her performance in the film. Rahul Ravindran came up with a powerful and impactful story and though films came earlier with similar plot, he with his captivating and hard hitting dialogues, intense screenplay turned the narration gripping. Considering all these points, Cinejosh goes with a 2.5 for The Girlfriend.