Bhooma is pursuing her Masters in literature at a college and staying in the hostel. A simple girl with solid values, Bhooma is lured — partly by circumstances, partly by other factors which are beyond her control (or not) — into a relationship with college jock Vikram. As the days go by, Bhooma — though doted on by Vikram on the surface ('on the surface' being the operative words here) — finds herself trapped in an increasingly toxic relationship that she sees no escape from. Till one day, driven against the wall (or, rather, door) she decides that enough is enough.
In The Girlfriend, that is playing limited shows in both Telugu and Hindi, Bhooma is essayed by a luminous Rashmika Mandanna in what is, undoubtedly, the actor's best showcase yet. Director Rahul Ravindran crafts a seemingly simple yet searing tale of misogyny, toxic relationships and patriarchy, which explores what happens when a woman decides that she has put up with more than she should have. The result is a film that could well be a companion piece to The Great Indian Kitchen/ Mrs and a punch in the gut to Arjun Reddy/ Kabir Singh.
Written by Ravindran — who also stars as Bhooma's professor, a voice of reason and sanity in the middle of the emotional chaos that she finds herself in — The Girlfriend is, unfortunately (and uncomfortably) the story of almost every woman out there. You don't need to be a college kid in Hyderabad to find resonance with Bhooma's predicament. You just need to be a woman. A woman who has been dominated by a man in the guise of being "protected"; a woman whose dreams and aspirations are dismissed by the man who claims to love her; a woman who is cornered into playing roles pre-ordained by society in such a way that she forgets who she really is. A woman whose mental health unravels even as she is expected to keep it all together.
For Bhooma, assuming the role of Vikram's undemanding caregiver — when she is actually "the girlfriend"... ideally, and for all purposes, a relationship of equals — quickly degenerates into becoming her only identity. As Ravindran carefully but impactfully pulls back the layers, we are shown that this is a spillover of the trauma from her childhood. Her father — being a single parent — guilt-tripped her into giving him her undivided attention and "punished" her on the rare instances when she slipped.
Vikram (Dheekshith Shetty), the popular guy in college, wants a girl like his mother. Bhooma fits the bill perfectly. At first, the huge attention is something that Bhooma, who has so far led a cocooned life, relishes to some extent — until she realises that it comes with a price.
Ravindran expertly captures the turmoil within Bhooma without resorting to melodramatic exposition. It is all skilfully worked into the screenplay — Vikram putting his arm around Bhooma every time he meets her, as if to mark her as his own, becomes a physical and psychological burden on her. That scene of the walls slowly closing in on her as she showers is a visual that conveys much while saying little, culminating in that sequence in Vikram's home in which she sees herself in the mirror, a few decades on, as the spitting image of his long-suffering mother.
The Girlfriend feels like a sucker-punch because Ravindran, aided by some effective work in all departments, does not show the man as the gun-wielding, excessively violent misogynist that we have been introduced to in Sandeep Reddy Vanga's ('Animal' or not) world. Vikram's problematic behaviour stems from a generational setup of patriarchy. The film shows how deeply the rot has set in, with Dheekshith doing an effective job of depicting a man conditioned by gendered norms.
The true scene stealer is Rashmika. From the meek girl in a story — which depicts much more than an introvert girlfriend-extrovert boyfriend equation — to that Carrie-esque outburst in the end, the actor is in fine form, giving us an unlikely shero we keep rooting for. Is this Rashmika's atonement for bearing it all with the (infamous) gritted teeth in Animal?
My favourite film that challenges patriarchy is... Tell t2@abp.in