Mohan Rangachari, best and popularly known as "Crazy Mohan" in the world of Indian cinema, has taken a permanent rest after suffering a massive heart attack on 10 June 2019. On a personal view and as a general audience, I strongly believe the most daunting task in a cinematic measure is to make someone laugh. Emotions vary from within us and it works in many different forms, but the toughest of them all is laughing, especially when you are asked to make someone laugh in a split second or so.
Crazy Mohan's life experience ever since young evolved heavily in comical elements and I can boldly say, his timely, intelligent and brilliant comedy writing is irreplaceable. He has left behind a spot that can never be filled by anyone but himself.
The popular playwright and theatre and film comedian was best known for his rib-tickling one-liners and repartees which was also his success in gaining such a huge fan base in Tamil cinema. The comedy legend's over four-decade career began with him taking the theatre by storm with his hilarious middle-class centric content and laughter built on ubiquitous themes before he moved on to silver screen.
As an original yet creative thinker, Crazy Mohan successfully reprised his theatre expertise in cinema by clinging on to simple but hugely successful one-liners and wordplay, as seen in films like "Panchathanthiram", "Vasool Raja MBBS", "Thenali", "Pammal K. Sambantham" and others that went on to redefine comedy in Tamil films.
An Engineer by profession, Mohan was heavily drawn into a funny character since college and even went on to set up the Tamil drama troupe "Crazy Creations" in 1979.
Just few days ago, I was watching an interview session of Crazy Mohan, mainly sharing about his childhood desire ands dream to enter the entertainment industry and how K. Balachander, referred to as a mentor played a huge role in giving him such a fame in the industry. He was so down to earthwhen answering the questions asked, and if closely observed, one will notice the child-like responses by Mohan. We're talking about a 60 year-old man who is enjoying life like a 20 year-old teenage adult, throwing away all negative vibes and doing what he does best, keeping everyone happy!
Mohan's association with Kamal Hassan is one of the funniest trio and possibly one of the best gift ever to Tamil cinema. If not present physically on screen with Kamal Hassan, Mohan's dialogues are so memorable and I see no better fit than Padmashree Kamal himself. There was just too much chemistry and mutual understanding between them and it helped escalate comedy to a whole new level.
Both these legends have made our cinematic experience so much meaningful and it was always a delight to see them rock the screen! It all started with "Aboorva Sagodarargal" in 1989 and eventually it resulted to blockbuster movies like "Panchathanthiram", "Pammal K. Sambantham", "Thenali" and the list goes on.
Nagesh: "Maggi yaaru"?
Kamal Hassan: "Maragathavili odeh short-form".
Nagesh: Aperom, Mythili"?
Kamal Hassan: "Medium-form".
Ramesh Arvind: Full-form le iruka".
Hahaha, it is dialogues like these, so short and simplen yet memorable that made him such an iconic Tamil playwright in the industry. i could go all-day long with Mohan's famous, funny and intelligent lines.
No vulgarity, no double-meaning dialogues and no offensive remarks on anyone for that matter, just pure funny, intelligent and rib-tickling comedies.
As i've mentioned earlier, I reflected a lot within myself after watching Mohan's interview, a lot of good values that can be absorbed from this man. The one thing I learned from the interview is that, pursue your dreams no matter what or how long it takes. It is definitely worth the wait, and most importantly, along the way, keep people happy and it does you wonders in return.
Finally, one sentence from Mohan during the interview that caught my attention that I wish to share:
Crazy Mohan: "Crazy Mohan is Lazy Mohan." Hahaha 😄
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