A man and his witty word play

With his brilliant dialogue delivery and hilarious roles, Crazy Mohan never failed to make fans laugh

The country lost two great playwrights on Monday, Girish Karnad and Mohan Rangachari, aka Crazy Mohan. Mohan was best-known for his situational comedy in stage plays and rib-tickling dialogues for Tamil cinema. He became an inevitable part of the 80s and 90s generation with his work.

Cinematic collaborations between Kamal Haasan and Crazy Mohan have been highly praised. Kamal’s comic timing and Mohan’s creative dialogues made a great combination. Metrolife takes a look at some of their best films in Tamil cinema.

APOORVA SAGODHARARGAL (1989)
This was the first of the Kamal-Crazy collaborations. It was known for its wit and poignant scenes. Crazy Mohan played a cameo in the movie.

AVVAI SHANMUGI(1996)
Once again, Crazy proves ‘mistaken identities and their mix-ups’ is his forte. Be it the scenes between Kamal and Gemini or with Meena, the film had several laugh-outloud moments which are still etched in our memory.

VASOOL RAJA MBBS(2004)
It’s a remake of the Hindi film ‘Munnabhai MBBS’. The scenes between Prakash Raj and Kamal Hasaan were rib-tickling, making the film a league apart. Crazy Mohan wrote the dialogues and plays the role of Dr Margabandhu in the film. Even after all these years, dialogues like “Margabandhu modhal sandhu... kavithai maari illa?” are quite popular among the Tamil meme nation. This turned out to be the last movie in which Kamal and Mohan worked together.

PANCHATANTHIRAM (2002)
It revolves around five friends and their antics to get rid of a dead body. Kamal and Simran play the lead roles where Simran (his wife in the movie) suspects him of having an extramarital affair and leaves him. Lines like, “Munnadi, pinnadi enna irundhudhu?” (What was there in the back before this?) how Crazy Mohan’s brilliance, as he wrote the dialogues for this classic movie.

KADHALA KADHALA (1998)
Kamal and Prabhudeva’s bromance still remains a favourite among the fans. The premise is of mistaken identities and mix-ups that lead to great confusion among their families, while the couples try to cover up the truth. Crazy Mohan played a cameo in the film.

MICHAEL MADANA KAMA RAJAN (1990)
With Kamal juggling quadruple roles and Mohan’s impeccable dialogues, the movie left the audience gasping for breath with laughter the whole time. The film still remains fresh in movie-goers’ memories because of the quality of comic writing in it.