She said that the film is not about the two leads, but about the family, an ideal family.[49] Tejaswini Ganti has called the film a "paean to filial duty" for how the children are willing to sacrifice their love for the good of their families.[50] The family relationships are also noted for being different from the normal cinematic families of the time due to their mutual civility.[30] Rediff.com noted that "Though the film was initially dismissed as a wedding video, its success indicated that post-liberalisation, Indian audiences still clung to the comfort of the familiar."[51] Jigna Desai said that the film's popularity was due to interactions of the families around the traditional folk wedding practices.[52] In his study on the response to the film, academic Vamsee Juluri concluded that the celebration of the family is HAHK's "most useful contribution to history".[53]