Ek Rishtaa: The Bond of Love

Synopsis

Vijay Kapoor (Amitabh Bachchan) is a successful businessman. He lives happily with his wife (Raakhee) and their four children. Ajay (Akshay Kumar), their only son who was studying abroad and has graduated from university, received an academic degree in Information Technology and came back home now.

Rajesh Purohit (Mohnish Behl) enters the family, and deviously impresses Vijay with his efficiency, and his eldest daughter Priti (Juhi Chawla) with his charm, whereas his main goal is to impoverish their family and take over Vijay's fortune.

Soon, Vijay approves the marriage of Priti and Rajesh. Meanwhile, Ajay falls in love with Nisha (Karisma Kapoor) and plans to marry her.

Vijay convinces Ajay to first gain experience in the family business, even though Ajay wants to start his own business. However, ideological differences result in disputes between the two. Consequently, Ajay stands firm in his decision to start his own business. He asks his father for economic assistance. When Vijay refuses to do so, Ajay lends a loan. When Vijay discovers this, he is furious and throws Ajay out of the house.

Ajay finally marries Nisha and the couple move into their new house. In deception, Rajesh makes Vijay sign a power of attorney, which empowers him. That's how Vijay goes bankrupt, and all his fortune goes automatically to Rajesh.

As Ajay finds out what happened, he gets that Rajesh was the one who had incited arguments between the two. Ajay tries to get close to his father again, which causes a crisis in his relationship with Nisha, who is not pleased with Ajay's reunion with his family. Ajay and Nisha get separated due to consistent arguments between them, and while she finds out that she is pregnant, Ajay has already returned home. His mission now is to return his family fortune, as well as his father's faith, as the latter still cannot forgive him their dispute.

Vijay and Ajay eventually become reconciled, although he is yet to return the fortune. Rajesh begins to maltreat Priti, and she also comes back home. Ajay then decides to return his family fortune violently, and forces Rajesh to sign another power of attorney which says that the money comes back to the owner. Nisha gets back to Ajay with a child, and the family finally reunites and lives happily as it used to be before.

Cast

Soundtrack

The music was composed by Nadeem-Shravan while lyris were by Sameer. The album was the tenth most sold album of 2001. Manish Dhamija from Planet Bollywood gave 7.5 stars stating, "The album is definitely worth a buy on CD". According to the Indian trade website Box Office India, with around 18,00,000 units sold, this film's soundtrack album was the year's tenth highest-selling.

Critical reception

Ek Rishtaa received a mixed reception from critics.

Dharmesh Rajput of BBCi-Films gave it 3 out of 5 stars, praising the performance of Amitabh Bachchan stating, "the real pleasure of this film is Amitabh's performance — is it any wonder he was voted best actor at the BBC Online Millennium Polls? This man is good value for money on the big screen". N.K Deoshi of Apunkachoice.com also gave the film 3 out of 5 stars but said "Suneel Darshan had all the ingredients to make a blockbuster, a celluloid virtuoso like Big B, a bevy of willowy beauties Karisma, Juhi and Simone Singh and, last but not the least, the khiladi Akshay Kumar. But despite such an impressive ensemble Ek Rishta turns out to be quite a disappointing fare". Savera R Someshwar of Rediff.com gave the a negative review calling the screenplay terrible but praised the performances of Amitabh, Akshay, Karishma, Rakhee, Juhi Chawla and Mohnish Behl.

Box office

The film had an average opening, and overall it was a Semi-Hit at the Box-office. It was the tenth highest-grossing movie of the year (Bollywood films of 2001).