‘The Girlfriend’ Has a Tough Challenge Ahead

National Crush Rashmika Mandanna, who is riding a success wave with back-to-back hits, is coming up with a bold attempt through her next film ‘The Girlfriend’, the trailer of which was unveiled on Saturday. Directed by Rahul Ravindran, the film is centered around the turbulent journey of a demure girl Bhooma played by Rashmika who gets sandwiched between a toxic relationship with her classmate played by Deekshith Shetty and her disapproving father essayed by Rao Ramesh. 

Going by the trailer, it is very much clear that The Girlfriend will be an unconventional love story packed with painful and haunting scenes between the lead pair as a result of affection turning into obsession. More or less, it is going to be a radical love story with the female lead facing the brunt of the emotional entangle as she tries to navigate the strained relationship by questioning whether she is right or wrong. 

The intense trailer has came as a big surprise to everyone especially Telugu fans who expected a feel good romantic drama from Rahul Ravindran and Rashmika. These kind of hard-hitting love stories usually were explored in Bollywood earlier due to their wide reception. 

In Telugu, such stories are quite rare. Though some films like Arjun Reddy also centered on a similar toxic relationship concept, they were narrated from hero’s perspective. But, The Girlfriend will explore the same theme through female lens. So, it would be interesting to see if Tollywood audience embrace such kind of extreme love stories when told from heroine’s point of view. The box office outcome and critical reception will tell the answer for this.