Max, Min And Meowzaki is not something Bollywood audiences are used to in their cinema that thrives on melodrama and noise. Still, it captures a slice of city life that has made space for cat lovers, movie buffs and Carnatic rockers, discovers Deepa Gahlot.
Key Points
- Max, Min And Meowzaki explores contemporary urban relationships and family dynamics, featuring characters often found in film festivals or swish cafés.
- The narrative unfolds through a series of interactions between characters, revealing their inner selves and addressing issues like loneliness, mental health, and inclusivity.
- The film is praised for its engaging tête-à-têtes, gentle humour, and its unique capture of a slice of city life, appealing to cat lovers, movie buffs, and Carnatic rockers.
What is the likelihood of bumping into someone in Mumbai, who has not only heard of Hayao Miyazaki, but also speaks Japanese? This happens in Padmakumar Narasimhamurthy’s unapologetically urban, Max, Min And Meowzaki.
The characters in the film are the kind who could be found in a film festival queue, or swish café. Not the kind of city slickers found in mainstream cinema, who may wear expensive designer outfits, but their mindsets haven’t caught up with contemporary life.
So, when a woman says, ‘I don’t believe in marriage,’ she does not have to automatically be dressed in skimpy clothes to demonstrate her care-a-damn-ness.
A Modern Breakup and Unconventional Pet Care
When Mahesh ‘Max’ Mahadevan (Siddharth Menon) and Minara ‘Min’ Hussain (Medha Shankr) break up because she has found someone else, they divide up things in their shared apartment.
She has to leave her beloved cat, Meowzaki (named after the Japanese animator and cult filmmaker) with him because she is a production designer and has to travel for a shoot. Max, who suffers from animal fur allergy, is forced to depend on nasal steroid sprays, or the sneezing would never stop.
He had done it for the love of Min, so he is slightly resentful, if not outright hostile when he is saddled with care of a pet he did not want in the first place, particularly when he is still grieving over the recent loss of his mother (If a character in an Indian indie film ever had an allergy, the title slips the mind!).
Generational Dynamics and Emotional Baggage
Max, Min And Meowzaki then spreads out to encompass the lives of Max’s emotionally distant father, Ramesh (Adil Hussain), and his cheerful grandfather, a respected classical singer, Sridhar (Nasser).
As the old man living in a retirement home jokes, all three Mahadevan men are single at the same time.
Min, whom Ramesh disapproved of, because of her religion, has walked out and the wives of the other two men are deceased.
The older men admit that they were not good fathers, and did not give enough time to their sons. Sridhar was disappointed that his son could not sing, Ramesh is disappointed that Mahesh prefers to sing jingles rather than take over his business. So, it seems that all this unexpressed angst has made Max overly sensitive.
New Connections and Self-Discovery
After Min, he wants to move on, but is also put off by a dating app match (Elisha Mayor), who comes on too strong. He hits it off with Carol (Vidhatri Bandi), a cat sitter he sources to take care of Meowzaki.
Meanwhile, an insomniac Ramesh takes his baggage of conservatism and insecurities to a therapist, Dhaara (Mandira Bedi, with a dazzling wardrobe), and Sridhar befriends Jennifer (Nafisa Ali), an Alzheimer’s patient who lives in the retirement home, and also happens to be Carol’s grandmother.
Filmmaking Style and Social Commentary
Max, Min And Meowzaki is written like a series of interactions between two characters, in lavish, tasteful interiors, beautifully shot by Nikhil Arolkar. They speak in a comfortable mix of languages (though a few of them would not be native Hindi speakers).
Through these chats, the layers of the characters inner selves are revealed — why they are the way they are.
The second half of the film does lose some of its charming novelty, and there are clumsy scenes, like a character overhearing a conversation that makes him change the course of his life; or walking into an intimate moment that challenges his ‘WhatsApp Uncle’ prejudices.
Because the film has a few nonconformist characters, there has to be some inclusivity box-ticking — gay, differently abled, ageing — and issues like loneliness, mental health and domestic violence ticked too because they are also part of the new woke mindset. Still, it is to Padmakumar Narasimhamurthy’s credit, that the characters seem real so it feels like eavesdropping on the neighbours.
Performances and Overall Impact
The women are adjuncts to the men’s self-discovery, but they are likeable too, even the wishy-washy Min and the slightly manipulative Carol.
The romantically-stunted Max comes of age eventually, and even the inflexible Ramesh is offered undeserved absolution.
Siddharth Menon is at the centre of the understated drama and plays Max with confident energy. But it is Adil Hussain who has the more challenging role of an unlikeable man. Dodgy Tamil notwithstanding, he gets the complexity of the character.
Nasser owns any scene is in, and watching him charm Nafisa Ali is a delight.
The Eric Rohmer-ish film, with its engaging tête-à-têtes and gentle humour, is not something Bollywood audiences are used to in their cinema that thrives on melodrama and noise. Still, it captures a slice of city life that has made space for cat lovers, movie buffs and Carnatic rockers!
