From Kapoor & Sons and Dil Dhadakne Do to the latest Max, Min & Meowzaki, Here Are The Family Stories That Connect

Hindi cinema has never really moved away from the family drama - it just keeps finding new ways to tell it. Whether it's a reunion gone wrong or a quiet father-daughter routine, these films all circle back to the same messy, familiar territory: the people we call home. With Max, Min & Meowzaki set to hit theatres later this month, here's a look back at some of the films that got the genre right.

Kapoor & Sons

Shakun Batra's 2016 film opens with two brothers rushing home after their grandfather suffers a heart attack - and what should be a simple reunion quickly turns into a reckoning. Old grudges and buried secrets surface one by one. The ensemble cast - Rishi Kapoor, Ratna Pathak Shah, Rajat Kapoor, Sidharth Malhotra, Fawad Khan and Alia Bhatt - gave the film its emotional weight, and it remains one of the more honest portrayals of a family falling apart and trying to hold together at once.

Dil Dhadakne Do

Zoya Akhtar sent the Mehra family on a cruise meant to celebrate their marriage - and used it instead to unravel everything they'd spent years hiding. Anil Kapoor and Shefali Shah anchor the film as parents whose picture-perfect marriage isn't what it seems, while Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Ranveer Singh, Farhan Akhtar and Anushka Sharma navigate the gap between what their family expects of them and what they actually want.

Wake Up Sid

Before he was fixing broken families, Ranbir Kapoor was the one who needed to grow up. Ayan Mukerji's coming-of-age story follows Sid, an aimless young man whose relationship with his parents shifts as he stumble - slowly, believably - into adulthood. It's less about a single dramatic turning point and more about the small moments that add up to one.

Piku

Shoojit Sircar didn't need a crisis to make Piku work - just a father, a daughter, and their constant bickering. Amitabh Bachchan and Deepika Padukone play off each other with a familiarity that feels lived-in, and Irrfan Khan's presence as the reluctant middleman gives the film its quiet comic timing. It remains one of the better examples of finding drama in the ordinary.

Udaan

Vikramaditya Motwane's debut feature is the darkest of the lot. A teenager, expelled from boarding school, returns home to a father who rules with control rather than affection. Rajat Barmecha and Ronit Roy carry a story about ambition and freedom that still feels sharp more than a decade later.

Max, Min & Meowzaki

The newest entry to this list takes a gentler route. Produced by Samiksha Oswal and Shael Oswal, the film's teaser points to a story built around everyday moments rather than big dramatic beats - with hope and family at its centre. Siddharth Menon, Adil Hussain, Nasser, Mandira Bedi, Nafisa Ali, Medha Shankr and Vidhatri Bandi make up the cast, alongside a cat who appears to play a bigger role in the story than a typical pet cameo. The film releases in theatres on July 24.

Family dramas don't need a fresh formula to keep working - they just need to feel true. That's probably why, film after film, audiences keep finding a version of their own family somewhere on screen.