Padmakumar Narasimhamurthy’s quirkily titled Max, Min & Meowzaki weaves together a break-up, a breakdown and a breakthrough. The mostly English-language film follows three generations of the Mahadevan family: the singer Max (Siddharth Menon), his father Ramesh (Adil Hussain) and grandfather Sridhar (Nasser).
Although Max has split up with his live-in girlfriend Min (Medha Shankr), he still has Meowzaki, Min’s black-and-white cat that’s named after the legendary Japanese animation director Hayao Miyazaki. Narasimhamurthy’s screenplay too tries to mimic the unhurried rhythms, profound wisdom and heavy presence of cats in Miyazaki’s films.
Max’s attempts to move on from Min necessitate the services of the cat-sitter Carol (Vidhatri Bandi). Ramesh is trying to forge ahead too. Ramesh’s emotional distance from Max and Sridhar, and the recent death of Max’s mother Vasudha (Gitanjali Rao), are among the reasons Ramesh is consulting the professional healer Dhaara (Mandira Bedi).
Meanwhile, Sridhar is living it up in the old age home that he purchased from its previous owner.
Money is no obstacle for the characters. They inhabit enviably plush homes and are identifiably from the urbane, deracinated strata of Indian society. Yet, they are adrift, cut off from one another and unable to relate to the erosion in liberal values.
Completed in 2022, Max, Min & Meowzaki has only just managed to secure a theatrical release. The movie’s concerns about religious bigotry and poor governance give it topicality and urgency. Padmakumar Narasimhamurthy’s previous films include A Billion Colour Story (2016), about an inter-faith marriage that is strained by communalism.
Some of the liberal messaging in Max, Min & Meowzaki feels forced, unlike the exploration of the pain that is crippling Max and Ramesh. The movie is at its most thoughtful and heartfelt when following Max and Ramesh through separate and yet connected journeys.
The film is big on conversations, which Narasimhamurthy and cinematographer Nikhil Arolkar shoot in as interesting a way as possible. The season of choice is the monsoon, the rain adding atmosphere and melancholy as a young man embraces adulthood and his father faces his troubled past.
The leisurely pacing allows for core emotional truths to emerge. Although Max, Min & Meowzaki feels stretched towards its finale, 138 minutes are mostly well spent in the company of introspective people. The supporting actors include Nafisa Ali as Sudhir’s special friend at the old age home.
Nasser is in fine fettle as a reputed Carnatic singer who has his share of guilt to bear. The adorable Radha, who plays Meowzaki, deserves a shout-out for behaving exactly as a cat does.
Max’s trajectory is the most riveting and convincing, benefitting from an excellent performance by the under-utilised Siddharth Menon and a charming turn by Vidhatri Bandi. Unlike Medha Shankr, who’s saddled with a blubbering and confused character, Bandi is completely at ease with Carol’s arc.
The track revolving around Adil Hussain’s Ramesh and Mandira Bedi’s Dhaara is initially revealing. But Ramesh’s disturbing truth, which is kept out of view until the end, is never adequately analysed.
The film doesn’t create a convincing case for Ramesh to be counted alongside Max and Sudhir as a candidate for redemption, especially given the horrible nature of his behaviour. In these scenes, the progressive bent feels like a hollow gimmick to add complexity to a character, rather than an acknowledgement that soul-baring comes with consequences.
