A septuagenarian, an artist who is self obsessed, intelligent, neurotic, a demanding and uncaring father, failed marriage(s), a confused man who lives in the paradox of wanting fame and not want it either, in short a prick..

Living the stereotypical artist life with with his fourth wife who is always plastered (perpetually drunk), he is obsessed with a son who takes effort in maintaining a distance from him, precisely 3,000 miles away while his other two children from another wife, a son and a daughter are damaged for life because of his constant neglect of them.

And yet, it’s these two who are always there, gritting their teeth taking care of him hoping that one day, maybe one day he will give them their much needed attention.

The artist sees his peer regaling in fame and money, wrangling an invite for his latest exhibit and later disses about it to his always there neglected son.

The neglected son has never worked in his life and throws away the only gift he ever had, a brilliant pianist in ‘protest’ of his father’s attitude. His own way of rejecting any kind of artistic genes he inherited from his father.

He has a beautiful wonderful relationship with his 18 year old daughter who has become his confidante, the best friend he ever has, understands him as a friend, as a person, and lends her ear every time, she is the voice of reason and a soothing balm to all that hurt he carries.

His sister is well, his sister. A decent quiet person as she describes herself. A silent spectator to everything going around in her disjointed family. Bearing the brunt of  negligence from her father and a coldness from her stepmother, she bears it all and as usual the person no one thinks about, not even her brothers and yet she is there, always there with no expectations.

What happens when their father, a selfish MF(Mother..you know what I mean!) in capital letters has a brain trauma and goes into Coma?

What happens when two siblings and their successful half brother have to be together during this family crisis? Sound familiar? It did to me too until it didn’t.

At first, it seemed to me that this was one Disjointed family! The quirky kinds that one really doesn’t SEE until I did..

Look around you, not much further even, these are stories where all or most of us have experienced isn’t it?

Feeling of abandonment by a parent, one sibling always overshadowing another no matter what you do, that moment where you felt you were being over ridden by this sibling, or maybe you were the sibling who was always getting priority and you resented it too because of all that unseen pressure by that doting and suffocating parent.

That situation where you were not close to either parent, yet you had to be there no matter how they treated you or how you felt they treated you. The constant pressure,the push and pull situation like a rubber band, a negative energy coming off. We are what we grew up with, isn’t it?

Whether we like it or not, we are brought into this world and seem to address this person as Mummy, this person as Daddy, and this person as a brother or a sister.Period.

It’s like we are thrown into it with no choice. It’s  like an arranged marriage, tough and no choice again. We come to like the people around us through the process, as we grow up, taking in what comes at us.

What do you do when the father you yelled at the last time you saw him now lies in a hospital bed? Guilt, anger and frustration. Because no matter his illness he will always be the person he was. There is no sugar coating here. He STILL IS that person and yet what you see is a frail old man with a sharp incision on his head.. Rationality flies out of the window..

As his 4th wife casually and profoundly puts it, ‘ You have an idea of yourself and you want to hold onto that’. So freaking true, ain’t it?

It made me reflect a lot, on myself, the relationships I have, the friendships I maintain and the ones I let go for the better. These stories hold a mirror, stark, naked with no choice of turning your eyes away. To be honest within truly.

The Meyerowitz Stories People… Just watch it. Be that a pirated version, Netflix or torrents, just watch it.

And BTW did I mention that Adam Sandler and Ben Stiller give their career defining performances here? Just enjoy these stories.. Truly.