Fans and co-artists of ‘Crazy’ Mohan on Tuesday bid a tearful farewell to the artist. He died on Monday at 2 p.m . following an acute heart attack.
Several members of the film and theatre fraternity thronged his house on Monday as well as on Tuesday morning. Actors Suriya, Jayaram, Pandiarajan, Yuhi Sethu, directors Vasanth, K.S. Ravikumar and Bharathiraja were among those who paid their respects.
Director Vasanth, who had worked with Mohan in his film P oovellam Kettupaar, said that he was someone who was extremely generous with praise. “There are very few writers in Tamil cinema who have handled comedy so well and ‘Crazy’ Mohan truly was someone we could learn a lot of good things from,” he said. Director Bharathiraja said that his brand of humour was special for not hurting or demeaning anyone.
“We’ve worked on five to six films together and in some films, every shot will have some valuable input from him,” recalled director K.S. Ravikumar, who said Mohan had been one of the most positive people he had worked with. Mr. Ravikumar and ‘Crazy’ Mohan’s collaboration Panchathanthiram starring Kamal Haasan remains till date, one of the most popular Tamil comedy films.
‘Will live in fans’ hearts’
The South Indian Film Writers Association said that ‘Crazy’ Mohan would live on in the hearts of his numerous fans. “He had carved a niche for himself in both cinema as well as theatre,” association office bearers, which included its president K. Bhagyaraj, said in a statement.
Film-maker Suresh Krissna said that he knew him from the time his play Marriage made in saloon was adapted into a film Poikkal Kuthirai directed by K. Balachander. “I was an assistant director at that time. When I went on to make the Telugu film Indhrudu Chandrudu , both Kamal Haasan and I were extremely keen to have Mohan write the dialogues for us. Despite it being a Telugu film, Mohan wrote all the dialogues in Tamil and we then translated it,” he said. Suresh Krissna went on to direct the family drama 'Aaha' for which Crazy Mohan wrote the dialogues.
Senior theatre artist Kathadi Ramamurthi said that he had known him since 1966 and had been editing his scripts for plays till three years ago. “Many will struggle to write comedy but it came naturally to him and he wrote it like no one else could. Ten days ago when I spoke to him, he told he felt quite exhausted and tired but he was fine otherwise. It’s a personal loss for me.”
Theatre artist Lakshmi Rajagopal, who has been donning the role of Mythili in ‘Crazy’ Mohan’s plays for two years now, said he would encourage everyone. “I joined the troupe because I loved them. Before the puja, he would talk to everyone in the troupe and wish all the very best. His loss has now left us direction-less,” she said. Kamal Haasan was present at the Besant Nagar crematorium where the funeral took place. Actors Delhi Ganesh and Madan Bob were also present among others.
