The cloyingly sweet characters and uncomplicated, good stories remain. But what's missing from the latest Rajshri release is Sooraj's simplicity of vision and the Barjatya knack for picking high-quality actors.

Over the years, the Rajshri banner has had two major blueprints for success. The first was patriarch Tarachand Barjatya's, candy coated stories strong on family values, shot with straightforwardness and populated by sugary sweet characters, seen in movies like 'Geet Gaata Chal' and 'Piya Ka Ghar'. In the '80s and '90s, his grandson, Sooraj took the same, simple stories and added his touch of grandeur, adding assorted chachas, mamas, taus to reflect the Barjatya vision of a utopian family. At a time when most movies stayed formulaic boy meets girl dramas, Rajshri's idealistic movies scored big, resulting in historic blockbusters like 'Maine Pyaar Kiya' and 'Hum Aapke Hain Koun'.

The latest Barjatya on the scene, named Kasliwal albeit, makes her directorial debut this week, and she seems to be looking for her own ideas for success. Vidhi Kasliwal, Sooraj's niece, has been rubbed to lead the Rajshri banner forth with her 'Isi Life Mein', which also stars two newcomers in the lead, in Akshay Oberoi and Sandeepa Dhar.

The story of the movie isn't anything particularly new or path breaking. Promoted as a coming of age romance, the movie revolves around a girl, Dhar, named Rajnandini, raised in a closeted Ajmer household, coming to Mumbai for college and finding her feet with the 'dramatics society' that is filled with not so motley a crew. So there is the mandatory fat guy, the foul mouthed girl, the bimbette, the vamp, and few more clichés, chief being the chocolate boy lead and chairperson, Vivaan, who our girl manages to fall for. The rest of the story revolves around how the introverted Rajnandini turns into a confident RJ and stars in the society's flagship play. In between, her father, played by Rajshri regular Mohnish Behl, drags her back to Ajmer to get married, leading her friends to follow and eventually, everything resolving itself in the most predictable ways possible.

Now, the story itself isn't half bad, though it admittedly feels like a daily soap in the initial moments of the movie; in the hands of a more experienced director, things might have been different. But Kasliwal seems to have a taste for dragging things out. So, sequences, like the auditions, the father's change of heart and Rajnandini's transformation are stretched out to sleep inducing limits. This is most apparent at the end of the movie, where, although the story has resolved itself, the movie stretches onto to cover the dramatic society's play in the lengthiest way possible, a distinct failure on the editor's part.

The lead stars, Akshay and Sandeepa, too have their share of the fault. While pretty faces, neither of them possess particularly great acting chops, with Oberoi displaying all the personality of a wet rag, and Dhar is hamming her way through quite a bit of the movie. Though they do show scope for improvement and share some interesting chemistry, for this movie, they leave quite a bit to be desired. The same goes for the entire DS group, who add no value to the movie. The veterans, in Mohnish Behl, Prachi Shah and Shagufta Ali, who play the girl's family, are competent, but their characters find no great scope for histrionics.

The movie is surprisingly bereft of music for a Rajshri movie, particularly since 'Maine Pyaar Kiya' and 'Hum Aapke Hai Koun' virtually set the standards for Bollywood's big song and dance dramas. Though there are a three four tracks littered around the movie, they are nowhere in keeping what we've expected from the Barjatyas. Still, the Meet Brothers deliver some hummable fare, particularly in the film's theme track, 'isi life mein', which pops in at a couple of points through the movie.

In general, the movie is quite a disappointment, a feeling exacerbated by the legacy of the Rajshri banner. In fact, one is tempted to wonder whether the feeling is inspired precisely because of what we have come to expect from the Barjatyas. Still, in an age where Bollywood is increasingly moving towards cutting edge cinema, 'Isi Life Mein' comes off as ordinary fare, mainly because of the way it is handled by its makers and actors.

It is an average film to see.