Adil’s accent tales

The Bollywood actor opens up about his latest film Max, Min & Meowzaki and more

Noorulain Sayed

Fresh out of the press show of Max, Min & Meowzaki, I stepped out of Lightbox preview theater, eyes moist and a smile on my face, when I was told that the film’s lead actor Adil Hussain was present. Immediately, I felt like I had to talk to him. As we sat down for a quick chat, I realised he didn’t have any airs to himself despite innumerable achievements.

After exchanging pleasantries, he revealed how he was cast as the strict Tamilian Ramesh Mahadevan in the film. “I met (director) Padma Kumar, Narasimha Murthy, Paddy, as we lovingly call him in Los Angeles. He came to see my film called Mukti Bhawan (2016), which was showing in the LA Indian Film Festival. And his film was also there called A Billion Color Story (2016). And we saw each other’s film and I loved that film. And he said, ‘Oh my God, we will have to work together’. I said, ‘Paddy, any day, you know, I loved your film. Anytime you call me, I’ll be there’. Then he came up with this story and I was like, ‘wow’,” he said.

The actor, who hails from Goalpara, Assam, then spoke about how he perfected the Tamil accent. “I was terrified because he said we have to do a Tamil accent. I’m like, I never did it. It’s a responsibility not to make it caricaturish. And at least there should be a flavour of authenticity if not fully authentic. I cannot be a Tamilian within two months. So, I tried my best to be as he guided me. It was quite challenging. But I absolutely, thoroughly enjoyed every bit of it,” Adil said.

The film features Radha, the cat, in a prominent role as Meowzaki. Adil just has one scene with her. When pointed out that in that scene in which his character’s allergic to cats and runs away, he smiled and chimed in, “And I passed it on to my son also in the film.”

Adil added, “I love dogs. I had gotten used to cats much later in my life because my wife, when she was in her 20s, had a cat. And that was my first introduction to cats. The cat in this film added so much. As a metaphor, as a being with no religion.”

This film has travelled to so many film festivals and won many awards and now it’s finally released in India. “It feels very good. Because you make a film to be watched by people. And it is so nice for the director, for the actors, for the makers and producers to see and get inspired that oh, people really appreciate something which is truthfully and done with hard work, with authenticity. I am very happy,” the actor concluded.