No luck by chance for Ekta this time-DC

He is perennially scowling in this soap. Sameer Soni, returns to the small screen as a sour-faced, cranky character in Parichay, Nayee Zindagi Ke Sapno Ka. Ekta Kapoor's obsession with long names sure must have its basis in astrology. Ekta is highly superstitious and perhaps hopes the length of the name will bring her good luck. But this serial needs a stronger script as luck alone will not suffice.

After playing an endearing charmer in Jassi, Sameer has opted to play a crabby loser with a caustic sense of humour. Kunal Chopra (Sameer) is this brilliant lawyer whose career goes bust after he opts to get into business and is taken for a royal ride. Predictably, his love life too suffers as his girlfriend, who happens to be his former employer, J.K. Thakral's daughter, is not too enthused about spending her life with a loser. One can't blame her because failures have made Kunal so annoyingly taciturn, that Richa opts to dump him. Mona Vasu (Richa), returns to the small screen after Radha Ki Betiyaan. Mona has put on weight, she was already plump even while she was acting in Radha… She wears this funnily cropped short wig — whoever has created that wig needs to take a sabbatical — that makes her look like a clown. This coupled with tight fitting western clothes do not give her the sophisticated look that she is aiming for. Mona needs to shed that flab immediately.

Even Sameer has become podgy; it sure looks like marriage to Neelam really suits him. There appears to be no chemistry between these actors, even when they were supposedly in love with each other. Of course, there is a joint family too. Kunal lives with his parents, unmarried sister, married brother and his wife and a younger unmarried brother. The politics of living in a joint family has been portrayed rather well. There are undertones of humour too especially when Kunal teases his perennially weeping mother by calling her Meena Kumari, every time she gets melodramatic.

Arati Singh, who plays Seema, Gaurav's wife and Kunal's bhabhi has warmth that makes her very appealing. There is another romantic angle, Anand Chopra, another budding lawyer, who is forced by financial constraints to work for his brother's ex-boss, J.K. Thakral falls in love with his colleague Siddhi Mallik. Newcomers Saurabh Jain and Keerti Nagpure (Anand and Siddhi) are so expressionless that you can't make out when they are happy or sad. Hopefully, they will learn to act by the time this soap comes to an end.

The story is still evolving but somehow it lacks the energy. It does appear like Ekta Kapoor is desperately trying to include every ingredient she can to make this soap her hit. Her biggest competition would be her own soap, Bade Acche Lagte Hain, which appears at a later hour on another channel. Between the two serials, the latter definitely has more appeal.