The Girlfriend post-analysis: Rashmika Mandanna's emancipation is much-needed antithesis to alpha male culture

Rahul Ravindran's The Girlfriend explores a volatile relationship between two students, played by Rashmika Mandanna and Dheekshith Shetty.

If you think you know what The Girlfriend is about, you don’t. To chalk it down to just the story of a woman caught in the throes of a volatile relationship would be an understatement. Rahul Ravindran’s film is a case study on how to take tried-and-tested tropes in commercial cinema, flip them on their head, all while telling a story that stands out amidst incel culture. Is it flawless? No. But in a sea of alpha males, it’s refreshing to see the story of a woman who battles misogyny with everything in her being. (Spoilers ahead)

Rashmika Mandanna plays a vulnerable postgraduate student named Bhooma Devi in The Girlfriend.

What is The Girlfriend all about?

Bhooma Devi (Rashmika Mandanna) is a postgraduate student who has the infallible patience that befits her name. She is gaslighted into a relationship that she now doesn’t have the strength to leave. Everyone around her tells her she’s lucky to have bagged the college heartthrob Vikram (Dheekshith Shetty), who chose her over the vivacious Durga (Anu Emmanuel).

But under the shiny, glistening surface of it all lies a man who is stifling everything good about her. A jab in a happy moment here, abuse disguised as possessiveness there, and before Bhooma knows it, she has lost the spark that once made her shine. She’s stranded on an island with no help in sight.

The era of the alpha male

While it is oh-so-easy to blame Sandeep Reddy Vanga for the rise of the alpha male characters, let’s be honest that he was just the first one to define them, not the first one to write them. Men who feel entitled to the world and throw tantrums of epic proportions when told no have been celebrated in many a film.

Even the supposedly quiet ones who aren’t your typical ‘heroes’ and apparently feel unconditional love more often than not throw away a “ee ammailu antha inthe mama (brother, all these girls are the same),” while downing a peg or two and being a token incel. Why This Kolaveri Di? and all. Vikram indulges in all that and more. The difference being that, in The Girlfriend, we’re shown the effect his behaviour has on Bhooma, and he’s eventually called out for it.

The internalised misogyny that’s hard to break

Rahul writes some beautiful and heart-wrenching scenes in The Girlfriend that explore how deeply rooted misogyny is in most of us. After a point, Bhooma, who Vikram praises as being like his mother, becomes a glorified maid for him. A scene featuring his mother (Rohini), a woman who seems to have literally lost her voice, is bound to be a punch in the gut.

Durga, who falls for Vikram, initially wonders what he sees in a plain-Jane like Bhooma, but comes around in the most heartwarming of ways. Even Bhooma’s fight in The Girlfriend doesn’t seem to be just about her boyfriend’s lack of boundaries. She needs to undo everything she has been taught by her controlling single father (Rao Ramesh) to take control of her life, her feelings and her happiness. Vikram himself is also a product of normalised misogyny; the difference being that he benefits from it.

Holds up a mirror to society and films, both

It is often said that films mirror what society is like, but they also tend to glorify problematic behaviour in the name of entertainment, complete with jilted lovers delivering punch dialogue. It’s not often that films are made that make women, especially those who have faced abuse, feel seen without being judged. Usually, you tend to walk out feeling misunderstood or, worse, ashamed, despite not being the perpetrator.

Films twist themselves into pretzels to not state the obvious - their hero is an abuser. The Girlfriend is brave not just in the journey in which Bhooma finds her agency, but also in how it seems to echo popular films like Arya (2004), Arjun Reddy (2017) and RX 100 (2018), drawing a clear line in the sand that these are not men to be celebrated.

Every time Vikram lays his hands on Bhooma, consent be damned, it will make you recoil. Whenever her father constantly silences her with his diatribe about his sacrifices, you cannot help but feel rage. When she finds safety in Durga or her professor (Rahul), you want her to stay in that bubble. When The Girlfriend finally reaches its pinnacle and Bhooma finds a way to emancipation, you feel a weight lift off your shoulders. Isn’t that the point of good cinema?