Sentimental Values: Love, loss and letting go in 'Max, Min and Meowzaki'

An invisible thread of grief runs through Max, Min and Meowzaki. Sridhar Mahadevan is carrying the sorrow of having neglected his son in his childhood; his son Ramesh is grieving the death of his wife to whom he could never apologise; and the grandson, Mahesh aka Max, is trying to be a man about breaking up with the love of his life. Each of them tries to be a grown up about loss, but they’re failing badly.

Sridhar, once a famous Carnatic singer, played with customary gusto by Nassar, tries to drown his sorrow in Old Monk; Ramesh (Adil Hussain with gravitas and a heavy Tamil accent) is taking advice from a healer (Mandira Bedi); and Max is taking care of his ex girlfriend’s (Medha Shankr) cat, named after his favourite filmmaker Hayao Mayazaki. Played by a twinkly Siddharth Menon, Max learns to let go of his girlfriend and realises he was being a manchild about her. There is a subtext about rebels and liberals and the new India not being kind to them, as well as mentions of the Hindu-Muslim divide. But eventually the gift of the film is love. As one character says, quoting Miyazaki, my heart is stronger now that you’re in it.