The 'crazy' humour

Monday was a sad day for Indian cinema when it lost two of its gems, legendary Girish Karnad and ‘Crazy’ Mohan, both were veterans of stage-play and have achieved eminence in both films and plays. 

Mohan got the name ‘Crazy’ from his stage play ‘Crazy Thieves in Palavakkam’ one of his super hit plays, which was staged for many hundred times. Mohan added the name ‘Crazy’ to get a unique identity for him as there were many Mohan’s working in media industry that time.  He went on to write over 30 plays in his illustrious career.

Though Mohan was a mechanical engineer from the prestigious College of Engineering, Guidy, he was keen on script writing and wrote many plays for his brother, Maadhu Balaji’s drama troupe. The success of his plays in both writing and acting from late 1970s to 1980s catapulted him to the film industry and he made his debut as a dialogue writer with the legendary K Balachander in the film Poikkal Kudhirai in 1983 which was based on his stage play ‘Marriage made in Saloon’. The film was not a success and he went back to plays. 

While the film Mukta Srinivasan’s Katha Nayagan (1998) brought him back to film industry.  His first break in film industry came with Kamal Haasan’s Apoorva Sagotharargal (1989), for which he wrote the dialogues. The film became a big hit and Mohan became a name to reckon with for dialogue writing in the film industry.

While he wrote dialogue for several films, his association with Kamal Haasan was strong and both of them gave successive hits in films like Michael Madhana Kama Rajan (1990), Indran Chandran (1990), Magalir Mattum (1994), Sathi Leelavathi (1995), Avvai Shanmugi (1996), Kadhala Kadhala (1998), Thenali (2000), Panchathanthiram (2002), Pammal K Sambandam (2002) and Vasool Raja MBBS (2004). So much so, when Kamal Haasan and ‘Crazy’ Mohan come together, the film was bound to bring in laughter and the audience were waiting for their combination to be repeated. The other films which brought him fame were Mr. Romeo (1996), Rajinikanth’s Arunachalam (1997), Kannodu Kanpathellam (1999), Endrendrum Kadhal (1999), Poovellam Kettu Par (1999), Little John (2001) and recently Naan E (2012). 

Mohan is known for his quick wit and clever use of words in his plays and dialogues. His counter dialogues in plays became hugely popular and it was he who set the trend for such dialogues in cinema. His acting in both stage play and films was natural and witty and his cameos were popular in most of the films. 

Mohan ventured into television comedy plays in 1989 and achieved big success. He also wrote more than 100 short stories. Like a master of many arts, Mohan was also a distinguished artist, who had sketched more than 60 aesthetic paintings, including portraits of spiritual leaders and eminent personalities. Mohan had this habit of writing one venba (short Tamil poetry) a day and till date has written over 40,000 venbas, which are yet to be published and brought out as a complete book. 

Mohan received Kalaimamani award from the Government of Tamil Nadu for his immense contribution to the field of arts, in addition to many other awards. He was a multi-talented personality, who excelled in every field chosen by him. Kamal Haasan in his tribute mentioned Mohan deserves the name of ‘Humour Maestro’ Mohan and not ‘Crazy’ Mohan as he was brilliant and natural in humour in all his writings.

When ‘double meaning’ dialogues were considered as comedy, Mohan brought a change through his witty, brilliant, intelligent and natural dialogues, which evoked comedy and humour sense among the audience. Though Mohan earned great fame and name, he remained simple and humble throughout his life, which made him dear to many.

Mohan left this world at a young age of 66 years due to cardiac arrest but his body of work through stage plays, film dialogues, short stories, venba will remain immortal. It is an immeasurable loss to the Tamil film industry and Tamil drama field.