Ostensibly Manisha Koirala’s comeback film — after her doughty and victorious fight with the big C — Dear Maya is about love, languishing and loneliness. The film begins with shots of 15-year-olds Ana (Madiha Imam) and Ira (Shreya Singh Chaudhry) in Loreta Convent, Shimla, reading aloud an amorous passage from a romance novel.

Ana has a fairly decent domestic upbringing and environment with her father and mother (Iravati Harshe). Her neighbour, the reclusive Maya Devi (Manisha Koirala), a woman in a mid-40s leads a desolate existence; her pastime is restricted to making tiny dolls and looking after her aviary.  When one day, the teenagers’ prying nature extends to Maya Devi, Ira’s impishness leads the two to write letters to Maya in the name of an anonymous beau from her past.  Maya packs her bags and leaves for Delhi.  Six years later, a deep sense of guilt and remorse having taken over, she confides to her parents who bundle her off to a boarding school.  Ana leaves for Delhi to locate Maya, plastering her posters all over the city.

Well-conceptualised and written by debutante director Sunaina Bhatnagar (she was AD to Imtiaz Ali in three films),  the film belongs to a genre not much experienced in Hindi films. Nevertheless, she’s done a good job in her first independent film and has even managed to get a well-known film personality to do a cameo.

It’s as much a vehicle for Koirala as for the two newcomers, Madiha and Shreya — both have done a reasonably wonderful job. Iravati as the austere but tender-hearted mother is excellent. Manisha is more impressive as the transformed gorgeous woman in the second half.  The background score by Anupam Roy is in keeping with the mood of the film.  The length of the film, though, could have been curtailed by a quarter of an hour.