Euphoria (2026 film)

Chaitra, the plaintiff in a POCSO trial, pointedly asks the judge if it is a crime for girls to enter a pub, questioning why she should live in shame when she was not at fault and had stayed within her boundaries. Though she feels grief and anger as a survivor, she does not flinch from asking these questions. The parents of the minors who sexually assaulted Chaitra try to destroy the evidence of the assault using their influence, except Vindhya Vemulapalli, the mother of Vikas, one of the perpetrators. With the help of video recordings that the four boys took during the incident, a POCSO case is booked, and they are sentenced to a juvenile home.

Vindhya righteously gets her son punished for his brutal crime, but she soon gets him out on parole and tries to prepare him for BITSAT. Since the juvenile system changed Vikas, and he is angry at his mother, he calls his friends and consumes drugs after running away mid-traffic from his mother. Vindhya searches for him, finds him, and brings him home. When he fails to listen, in anguish, Vindhya starts drinking alcohol. Unable to see his mother in such a state, Vikas starts studying for BITSAT, and Vindhya helps him.

However, the night before the exam, his friends tell him that his mother handed over the phone (he disposed off in his toilet) containing the evidence of him and his friends raping Chaitra to the police commissioner, Jayadev Nair. Because of this, he does not arrive for the exam on time. When he asks why he should do all this, Jayadev asks whether Vikas even regrets what he did, and if he does, why he has not cried once since the trial. Vikas then takes the exam, but since he is a criminal, he must have his name cleared by appearing in front of an IAS officer. That officer is none other than Chaitra.

Though Chaitra remembers everything Vikas and his friends did, she remains professional and interviews him. As he answers all questions correctly, she grants him permission. It is then that Vikas goes to his mother and cries in remorse and grief, while Chaitra watches from afar, gets into her government-provided vehicle, and leaves. Vindhya and Vikas bond over a new beginning, experiencing the real euphoria of life's ups and downs, not the euphoria Vikas and his friends experienced through substance abuse. Vindhya files a lawsuit against herself, holding herself responsible for how her son turned out. After hearing her argument, Judge Surya Narayana Murthy says that Vindhya has already received her punishment and contributed to trying hard and reforming her wayward son.

The background score and songs were composed by Kaala Bhairava in his first collaboration with Gunasekhar.

Euphoria was released on 6 February 2026.^[4] Apart from Telugu, the film was dubbed and released in Tamil under the same title.^{[citation needed]}

Yashaswini Sri of The Indian Express rated the film 4 out of 5, appreciating Gunasekhar's direction, Kaala Bhairava's score, and the lead cast performances.^[5] Sangeetha Devi Dundoo of The Hindu too praised Gunasekhar's work writing that "Gunasekhar delivers a sharp fictional drama rooted in a harrowing true story".^[6] In contrast, Suresh Kavirayani of The New Indian Express opined that despite a strong premise, the film loses grip due to flawed narration and inconsistent storytelling.^[7]