An ailing patriarchal figure Vijay Kapoor (Amitabh Bachchan) lies in his bed, broken by his close ones. There is the dutiful wife Pratima (Raakhee) and a young daughter on the piano downstairs. The house is otherwise quiet and about to be auctioned. Immediately, we enter the world of flashbacks and see a young Vijay Kapoor and wife, both with dyed hair and eyebrows, singing about their hara bhara parivaar, both looking ridiculously like 60 year olds trying to pass off in their 30s. By the time the song is over, the kids have grown up into three sisters and a boy.

At a business awards ceremony, Vijay Kapoor is literally stalked by a twitchy and all admiring fan Rajesh (Mohnish Bahl). Rajesh wants Vijay Kapoor's autograph, sings eulogies of what a great person he is and tells him how he idolises him, carrying around cuttings and articles of him with him. Impressed with the boy, Vijay employs him and gradually, Rajesh ends up marrying one of the daughters, Juhi, heavily pregnant throughout the film. Of course, he is so revoltingly good and decent that it comes as no surprise when the worm turns!

Meanwhile, Ajay (Akshay Kumar) returns from holiday and joins his father's business starting at the bottom rung of the ladder. During his stint at the factory, he comes across a gambling union boss (Ashish Vidhyarti) with whom he has a fracas. But his father chides him and asks him to apologise to the union boss, which he does but resigns from his job. Here comes the conflict. Father has strong views on making it in life, which can only be done through experience whereas son believes that he can set up his IT business with the help of his education and make a success of it. Matters (fuelled by misunderstanding) come to a head which results in Ajay being thrown out of the house. At this point, Karisma comes to his aid and they both marry. Soon the tables are turned against Vijay Kapoor when in typical hindi phillum fashion, the scheming son in law makes off with the family's riches leaving them destitute. It was all a plot from a scheming mind of a middle class boy who pathologically plotted to take this family to the cleaners…all Bollywood bunkum really.

Now we return from the land of the flashback and find the dutiful son returning to the fold only to find that his father is aloof and does not need charity. But before he returns, his pregnant and hysterical wife states that he must choose between her and his parents. He chooses the latter and she returns home. Slowly and surely, the film winds to its conclusion fortunately with no death scenes but certainly with one disappearing act in Juhi who by now had probably ended up in the delivery room. Ek Rishtaa is a let down and let there be no doubt in that. It is a film made on a huge canvas and has an extremely good cast. The film has been advertised as opne in which there is a clash and conflict between father and son. If it had concentrated on this track, it would have made for an interesting and involving drama. But that is precisely where the film actually falls down. While the father son conflict is brewing, there is certainly some fire in the film, a film about two different ideals, two different generations bonded together by love but with different visions of the changing world. But Darshan does not seek to explore this and instead decides to go for the age old and utterly unconvincing track of the conniving son in law surreptiously swindling the trusting father-in-law out of his millions. This is Pran territory, not a film of the 21st century!!!

And the film degenerates to the level of the average flick with Naghma's dance with the villainous foursome slurping around her. The film is flatly directed, one scene falling into another without any depth. At times, it feels almost episodic. You never really feel moved enough or for very long and feel that this is simply a story being told in a superficial and uninvolved way. In fact, this is a rather simple film and simply narrated but with a premise which lets it down. It fails to deliver a strong punch. However, the film is not a complete washout either. It is almost always watchable as one's expectation for more keeps the interest alive even though it does not deliver. Bachchan is by far the most accomplished of the cast and is now making much better career choices as roles. This is a controlled and impressive performance. Raakhee is somewhat wasted. Akshay Kumar gives an understated and decent if unexceptional account of himself but you feel that he is capable of much more. Karisma looks off colour and is off key as well. Not one of her better efforts. Juhi is so pregnant in the film that mobility appears to be a problem and none of her usual spark is there. Mohnish Bahl really overdoes his cliched role. Not a single person could have believed this Mr Goody two shoes was not actually a snake about to show his poisonous fangs.

Nadeem Shravan's music provides a couple of decent tunes but nothing exceptional at all. In fact, there are too many songs and unnecessary ones at that, seemingly inserted at any point of the film. The ones that stand out are "ik dil hai" and "aap ke aane se" although a couple of the other tunes have become popular. The dialogues are good and almost to the extent that they give the film the only sense of drama. A shame then that with such a huge star cast and with potential to produce something of real merit, that the director chose a pathetically old and cliched story line and ended up with a half baked effort. Still, after Jaanwar, this is one step in the right direction.