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Star Cast: Siddharth Gupta, Sanskruti Jayana, Sushmitha Bhatt, Nivaashiyni Krishnan, Karthik Jayaram
Director: Hardik Gajjar
What’s Good: Innovative and honest storytelling
What’s Bad: The low buzz just might be counterproductive
Loo Break: You will not want any
Watch or Not?: Watch it lovingly!
Language: Hindi
Available On: Theatrical release
Runtime: 149 Minutes
User Rating:
The film explores how Lord Krishna (Siddharth Gupta) loved with a pure heart and was loved ditto by Radha, Rukmini (who had never even seen him), and Bhama (who was madly in love with him). Krishna and Radha cannot unite in matrimony because of the conflict between love and duty when the former is reminded of the reason he was born as a human being. He is here to protect dharma first. The greater cause of his existence is ever more vital than worldly pleasures, and so, he takes leave of Radha (Sushmitha Bhatt) by telling her that their love will always be immortal, and that her name will ever precede his (as Radhakrishna) and that before leaving this mortal body, he will play the flute for her.
Krishna is invited to the Draupadi Swayamvar and foretells to the princess (Smrithi Srikanth) that in the future, he will be blamed along with her as being the reason for the epic war to come between Good and Evil—what we know as the Mahabharat. At the Swayamvar, Rukmini, the woman who has been in love with his name and his deeds, sees him for the first time. Back home in Dwarka, Bhama (Nivaashiyni Krishnan) has always been madly besotted by him, though Krishna’s sister and Bhama’s confidante, Subhadra (Akshara Shivkumar) has warned her that he has eyes only for Radha.
When Krishna returns to Dwarka with Rukmini as his wife, Bhama is heartbroken. Krishna’s life soon takes many turns. And Bhama redeems his reputation when her father, Shatrajit (Kartikh Jayaram), falsely accuses Krishna of stealing a precious gem, and she exposes him. Thanks to this deed, she is renamed Satyabhama, and now, for a charming reason best seen on screen, Rukmini insists that Satyabhama also wed Krishna. Bhama now wants him exclusively for herself but is unaware that she is the incarnation of Bhoomi, mother to the demon Narkasur, whom she alone can kill, and soon realizes that her husband belongs to all, not her alone.
The film opens with a dying Krishna playing the flute for one last time for his beloved Radha after being hit by an arrow by mistake when a hunter wanted to kill a deer. Even more fascinatingly, we get to watch a long-haired ascetic (Jackie Shroff) narrating the Krishna Leela to a group of youngsters in current times, and one young man has a problem believing some aspects of it. So what happens?
Krishnavataram Part 1: The Heart Movie Review: Script Analysis
The film adapts Raam Mori’s book on Lord Krishna and is the first part of a trilogy. With a fabulous script like this, co-written by Hardik Gajjar (also the director) and Prakash Kapadia (co-writer of the brilliant Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior), we get a wondrous little gift (in terms of its production costs, cast, and team) along the lines of last year’s animation blockbuster, Mahavatar Narsimha. The screenplay structure and dialogues are superb and quite understated, stressing Krishna’s ever-unshakeable placidity and purity of heart.
As any good film must be, the writing is given complete attention and predominance, and the lines where Krishna chides Bhama when she asks him why he handed over their wedding gift to Rukmini, or the later lines when she realizes her limitations, or when he forgives her errant father, to mention just three examples, are especially fantastic in the uniformly well-written caliber.
The sequences are mounted so well that one feels the hypnotic charm of a great drama unfolding and also enfolding you in its grip. Taking a leaf out of the best cinema in such a genre, we see a lovingly written epistle on romance, sacrifice, surrender, moral obligations, duty, and humanity. And the end twist, superbly conceived and written, is just the perfect culmination of the fact that Krishna and his incarnations will never cease to touch us.
Krishnavataram Part 1: The Heart Movie Review: Star Performance
The film is strobe-lit with sparkling new talent and their scintillating performances. Siddharth Gupta is the perfect Krishna, as much a prankster as an idealist in duty. His fluid switching from indulgent to assertive and back is a wondrous watch. Siddharth’s interpretation of Krishna is the best I have seen since Nitish Bharadwaj held India spellbound in B.R. Chopra’s Mahabharat.
Sushmitha Bhatt is superb as Radha, her eyes and her intonations so bewitching that we cannot blame anyone for falling in love with her. Of the three girls, she is easily and effortlessly the best. Nivaashiyni Krishnan as Rukmini is bewitching in her simplicity but remains quite in the background. Occupying center stage is Satyabhama in a fresh story angle we had never known much about before. And Sanskruti Jayana gives it her all, her eyes a treasury of stubbornness mixed with grace and a tinge of melancholia.
Karthik Jayaram as Shatrajit is outstanding, and in briefer but striking roles, Amanjyot Singh as Balram, Akshara Shivkumar as Draupadi, and Smrithi Srikanth as Subhadra also impress. In cameos, Jackie Shroff and Sudesh Berry as the sage and the actor who plays Bhama’s aunt are effective.
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Krishnavataram Part 1: The Heart Movie Review: Direction, Music
However, as it should be every time, the director (this time also the co-writer), Hardik Gajjar, emerges as the real hero of the film, executing his dream vision with solid, almost ruthless intent. He makes sure that the technical aspects are well looked after and the music (Prasad S.) divine, ditto the lyrics (Irshad Kamil), and his own work is devoid of compromise.
The producers (Sajan Raj Kurup, Shobha Sant, Poona Shroff, and Parth Gajjar) need to be extolled for having backed this extraordinary dream, minus a corporate entity that would have interfered creatively with the depth and quality of content.
The music is superb—this school of songs, specifically written for a situation, composed in the right mood, and sung with love and passion, must return if Hindi cinema and its melodies are to be saved. The crème de la crème of the eight tracks are Shyamal Saavare, Man Ki Disha, and Anth Mein Aarambh. The background score is perfect.
Krishnavataram Part 1: The Heart Movie Review: The Last Word
In these times when such films are in vogue, this movie deserves it all—success, applause, and maybe some awards. Enter the hypnotic world of Lord Krishna as never before!
Four stars!
Krishnavataram Part 1: The Heart Trailer
Krishnavataram Part 1: The Heart released on 07 May, 2026.
Share with us your experience of watching Krishnavataram Part 1: The Heart.
For more recommendations, read our Name Movie Review here.
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