Sandalwood film Gatha Vaibhava which turned out to be a decent hit is releasing in Telugu as Gatha Vaibhavam on 1 Jan 2026. The film starred Ashika Ranganath and Dushyanth in the lead roles under the direction of Suni. Gatha Vaibhavam OTT rights are yet to be inked and it will be revealed at a later date. Let us see what Gatha Vaibhavam offered to movie lovers.
Gatha Vaibhavam's story revolves around two youngsters who, after meeting, experience strange happenings and how these events impact their lives.
Adhunika (Ashika Ranganath) goes in search of a man whom she sees in a painting in a relentless manner. Finally, she meets the person who happens to be Purathan (SS.Dushyanth). What she tells him in their conversation comes as a shock.
Why Adhunika goes in search of an unknown man, and what she reveals to him, and what role Anamadeva(Kishen Bilagali), Vaso Da Gama (Chiru S), Sudha Kanati (Sudha Belawadi), Krishna Kanati (Krishna Hebbale), Badayi (Karthik Rao) play from the interesting part of the proceedings.
Ashika Ranganath performed well in her role. She is convincing in her emotions and expressions and carries herself in a pleasant manner on the screen.She looked good on the screen.
SS.Dushyanth did what was required of him. He came up with good expressions showing his hesitation and confusion accordingly. Both Ashika Ranganath and Dushyanth came up with spirited performances showing variations in their body langauge, expressions, emotions and dialogue delivery to make an impact.
Sudha Belawadi, Krishna Hebbali are good in the role of parents of Puratan. Others like Kisen Blagali, Chiru S, Karthik Rao performed according to their roles.
Gatha Vaibhavam story is penned by Suni. He tried to entertain viewers with a romantic entertainer in the backdrop of period elements, three timelines and rebirths and reincarnation. Though the idea looks interesting, he ended up testing the patience of the viewers as he failed to narrate it in a convincing manner.
He chose three timelines and three love stories interwoven, featuring the lead pair. Among them, the love stories of Purathan and Adhunika and those involving the Portugese fall apart completely.The Portuguese man's quest to India looks extremely funny and outdated. Only the love story of Mangala and Srinivas though predictable, turns out to be the saving grace.
He tried to include everything like Gods, Humans, Fantasy etc and he thought that this will be sufficient to excite everyone. But everything is loosely knit and looked disjointed. He included many subplots and this at times impacted the screenplay. He included many elements and touched all of them without going deeper into any of them, disappointing the viewers. To the top of it , he tried to come up with spoofs on , Pirates of the Caribbean, and Life of Pi and it failed miserably.
He narrated two love stories in the first half and the last one in the second half. The first half love stories test the patience of the viewers with silly and unconvincing narration and scenes, and the second half love story is a little bit watchable. However, the predictability in the narration played the spoilsport. The screenplay didnot offer anything exciting, and the story turned out to be dull. He should have experimented with the screenplay, taking viewers to and fro into various timelines.
Ashik Kusugolli's editing could have been far better. There are many scenes that slowed the pace of the narration and inturn tested the patience of the viewers. William David's cinematography is good and he used the light, location, and textures in a effective manner to show the timelines in an effective manner. Judah Sandy with his music tuned distinct scores to add value to the narration. Dialogues are ok and production values are good.
Altogether, Gatha Vaibhavam turns out to be a predictable reincarnation romantic entertainer. Director Suni tried to be different chosing three different timelines but in the end, ended up following the same template of previous reincarnation entertainers thus robbing viewers of the fresh feel. He came up with grand dreams but failed to turn it into an engaging execution. A little reality check and rework on the script would have added value to the narration. Considering all these elements, Cinejosh goes with a 2 rating for Gatha Vaibhavam.