It is a significant work of the Indian Parallel Cinema movement which started during the 1950s with filmmakers Satyajit Ray ,Mrinal Sen and Ritwik Ghatak.

Taran (Aditi) is the daughter of a wealthy landlord (Iqbalnath Kaul) and lives with her father and her widowed aunt (Kanta Vyas) in their ancestral mansion (which goes on to represent the whole of upper class in the film).

The town is witnessing protests by newly formed labour unions which are partly being politically educated by the local railroad engineer (Anil Pandya), who seems to have an unspoken romantic relationship with Taran.

Stuck in a stifling patriarchal order, with pressure to marry an upper-class groom mounting, Taran decides to talk to her father about her plans.

[2] In an interview with Shahani, Rafique Bhagdadi and Rajiv Rao reveal the initial reaction to the film: "Despite the lavish praise it received abroad, Maya Darpan (1972) met with hostile reception in India.