Tried watching this again after years today and though the message is good, it is surrounded in too much sugar. This family is too perfect and unrealistic. Only mommy dearest is a trouble maker and she too on just one topic? Oh well, I guess at least Reema Lagoo got a good role.
I'm not sure I care much for the message either. "You have to live together to be family" or something? The entire movie was rather old-fashioned for that time, to be honest.
But yeah, too much sugar and every single line spoken was a sentimental or melodramatic cliché. The story was rather down-to-earth and straightforward, so it definitely didn't need that. What it did need was way more plot.