The bonding between a mother and her child is a deep and enduring emotional connection; it is an unconditional understanding that is eternal, powerful and defies all description. Venturing into Bengali film territory after more than a decade, Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury’s new film Dear Maa, which is based on the relationship between a mother and daughter, promises to offer an unconventional take on this universal connection.The teaser of the film portrays the relationship between a girl named Sohini Mitra (Ahana) and a woman (Jaya Ahsan) who is clearly not her biological mother.

Jaya Ahsan’s character is most likely her stepmother, being married to Sohini’s father (Chandan Roy Sanyal). It is not evident from the teaser whether Sohini’s biological mother is dead or has ended her marriage to her father. But what is unmistakable is that the girl does not accept Jaya Ahsan’s character as her mother and refuses to acknowledge their relationship in any way.

She is stubborn, rude and disobedient, often hurting the older woman’s feelings. Though the husband and wife are seen to share a harmonious relationship, the teaser provides enough clues to suggest that Jaya Ahsan’s character is desperate to develop a loving relationship with the child and suffers deeply upon being emotionally rejected by her. Jaya Ahsan as the ‘mother’, plays this intense and complex role with the restraint and maturity of a seasoned actor.

The plot of Dear Maa pivots on a crisis that develops when the girl suddenly goes missing, following which the mother lodges a missing diary at the police station. A mysterious angle is also introduced into the story when an elderly lady (Anubha Fatehpuria), probably a house help, mentions that the police have not been told the real truth about her disappearance.

Billed as a ‘heartwarming tale of love and belonging’, Dear Maa is expected to be an emotionally charged story in which the mother figure goes to extreme lengths to ‘find’ her daughter both in the real and metaphorical sense. A tribute to motherhood and the pure, selfless emotions associated with it, the film will probably showcase that motherly love can sometimes be deeper and stronger than the biological ties derived from the umbilical cord.

Starring Saswata Chatterjee in the role of a police officer, Dear Maa, directed by Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury, marks the first collaboration between these two stalwarts of Bengali cinema and will definitely give fans something special to look forward to when it hits the big screen. Dhritiman Chaterji, Biswajit Chakraborty and Shayan Munshi can also be briefly glimpsed in the teaser. Dear Maa will release in theatres on July 18.