"Phir Bhi" is the story of a search by a girl and her mother for finding their individual identity and place in life and society. It presents aspects of modern woman's transition from a completely domesticated and inhibited life to coming out in a man's world and working alongside him and fending for herself. it is also a reappraisal of man-woman relationship in the middle-class urban society in India today.
On a personal level, it is a story of two sets of relationships, one between two women and the other between these women and two men. The two women begin in as very loving mother and daughter then they become very close friends. The mother falls in love and they change roles the daughter taking over as the mother and the mother becoming a young girl. Finally, they are back to their original relationship and life goes forward through the daughter.
The mother's affair with a mature man does not work out, since besides being still very bound to the memory of her dead husband, she finds it very difficult to begin life again to her age with the very conservative instincts and emotions that she has been brought up.
The daughter, a very sensitive tense and an inhibited girl is also bound very deeply to the memory of her dead father. She now rejects men out of her life to the extent of almost feeling a repulsion against them. A young man falls in love with her, but unfortunately, he gives the impression of being a play-boy when actually he just wants to live a full life. This relationship begins in tension and repulsion on the part of the girl, passes through a state of deeper friendship when the young man gains a considerable degree of confidence in the girl.
The screenplay is set against the backdrop of Bombay City and places of interest around Bombay. Now the city of Bombay can influence the moods and lives of its people is one of the side-lights of the screenplay. The fascinating world of the Bombay Telephone Exchange also comes into focus.
[from the official press booklet]