Movie Review: Dear Maya starring Manisha Koirala

Movie Review “Dear Maya”
Rating: 3/5
Director: Sunaina Bhatnagar
Cast: Manisha Koirala, Madiha Imam, Shreya Chaudhary, Iravati Harshe, Sahil Shroff

‘Dear Maya’ movie trailer

It’s a delight to get such a fresh script, which these days has become a rare phenomenon in Bollywood. Kudos to the scriptwriter Sunaina Bhatnagar! However, 2 hours 11 minutes is too long for a story like this. The first part of the film has been dragged unnecessarily. The film would be equally good if it had a good 20-25 minutes chopped.

Ana and Ira’s characters are extremely relatable, so much so that one can perhaps mistake them for real, their journey from immature teenagers to matured college girls has been beautifully penned. They experience a lot in the six years, which makes them grow up and changes them as a person.

The film is slow-paced, especially the first half. A lot of unnecessary scenes could be chopped off to make it crisp. The film gains some pace and starts becoming interesting in the second half.

Debutante director Sunaina Bhatnagar’s penchant for detailing deserves mention and the film reflects her sensitivity.

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Manisha Koirala makes a stunning comeback with the film! In the first half, she sports a de-glam look and nails it. She looks aged, ugly and is almost unrecognizable. In the second half we get to see Manisha in her beautiful avatar. Right from Maya Devi’s body language to expressions, Manisha delivers a brilliant and realistic performance. She does not have too many dialogues in the film but she proves that a talented actor does not always need dialogues to exhibit his or her acting skills. Hence, despite having limited dialogues, her expressions do the job and make us feel for Maya Devi.

The new girls, both debutantes Madiha Imam and Shreya Chaudhary are impressive. Madiha gets the lion’s share of screen space in the film (even more than Manisha Koirala perhaps) and she does not disappoint us. As for Shreya, there is a little tendency to overact here and there but overall she is good.

Iravati Harshe is impressive as usual and fits into the character of Ana’s mother with confidence.

The film has a feel good factor and teaches the viewer to embrace life with positivity and optimism. It teaches us to say YES to life, always.

Sayak Bhattacharya is impressive with the cinematography.

The songs composed by Anupam Roy are melodious and easy on the ears. I particularly liked Aaja Khelen Zindagi, sung by Rekha Bhardwaj and Soone Saye by Harshdeep Kaur. The lyrics by Irshad Kamil touch the heart.

It is not a typical masala Bollywood film and hence will not appeal to every kind of audience. But the film will go down in history as one of Manisha Koirala’s best performances ever!