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Whenever I think about Uthamaputhiran, Motor Sundaram Pillai, Galatta Kalyanam, or Navarathri, I feel the void of Sivaji and wonder will we ever get to see one like him again. I get the same feeling with Crazy Mohan. It came as a shock when the news came. Where do I begin? Should I write about days we, friends and relatives, kept discussing dialogues and scenes from Kamal-Crazy team not realizing it was way past midnight? That all you need is one guy to lit the spark of MMKR in a gathering, everyone gets infected with the bug, and keep going on and on recalling his Tamil-Tamil and Tamil-English word-plays over multiple cups of coffee? Or the time where I was at an art museum with my wife listening to an art teacher dissecting a famous painting to her students and both of us went Ithellam eppadinga ungalukku theriyudhu? How Crazy and Kamal pushed each other to give us their creative best, not one, not two, but 11 memorable movies?

Crazy Mohan already had his stamp in plays and a well known person before he started his collaboration with Kamal, but his work in Kamal movies rocketed him to stardom as a successful screenplay and dialogue writer. It pretty much became a new gleeful Crazy-Kamal genre, a gold standard for full length comedy movies. Their creative genius lies in getting comedy sequences and connecting them together. MMKR is a great study not just for aspiring actors and directors, but for a doctorate too – how the screen-play seamlessly jumps from one comedy sequence to another stitching different threads while introducing us to the worlds of 4 characters Michael, Madan, Kameshwaran, and Rajan. When I watched MMKR, first thought that crossed my mind was how the FDFS guys would have felt not knowing anything about the movie, Kamal-Crazy-Singeetham just unleashed a laugh monster on the unsuspecting audience. By the time we hit the riotous climax, a homage to Charlie Chaplin’s Gold Rush, we are left gasping for breath.

The magic that started with Apoorva Sagodhargal continued till Vasool Raja MBBS. All these movies stand out due to their sheer craziness. We don’t know how they worked together as a team, but what we can infer is they tuned the screenplay to get not only the best out of them but also the co-actors. They never missed an opportunity to extract humor from mistaken identity, character mix ups, local cultural milieu, and word play. Adding Mami neenga eththanai Kattai in Navarathri sequence in Avvai Shanmughi took it to another level and had us in splits. Word play with Piilai (Yaar pillai? Neengala? Illa Naan Mudaliar. Appa neenga pillaiya? Illa naan Nair. Appa yaarthan pillai?), Mean, Body, guest-house, keep left, and the list is endless. Say mistaken identity and we have dead body swap in Magalir Mattum, Mythili alias Maggi, Basha alias Palavakkam Swaminathan. Then we get a gem of an analogy like Ennadi ithu, Kambalila eeshinda pee madhiri ottindu pora?

While his comedy sequences and comic word plays stood out, it is a mistake to restrict him to only that. Underneath the comedy layer, Apoorva Sagodharagal is a gory revenge saga, how a circus clown becomes a beast. Magalir Mattum talked about work place sexual harassment. We get to hear Thenali’s fear and how he survived the bombings during a civil war.

Outside his collaboration with Kamal, I did like the premise of Chinna Vathiyar from Crazy-Singeetham combo. Movie had a preposterous but an ambitious premise but that premise required a preposterous story which it lacked. Two years later, Hollywood movie FACE/OFF became a blockbuster which had the same premise supported by an outlandish story and actors. If only they had pulled in writer Sujatha or Kamal and had little bit more budget…well there are no ifs and buts in history.

Retention and Recall factor is high for his one liners. While Vadivelu rules the meme world, Crazy is not far off.  What is the procedure to change the room? popped up in memes post the latest election results!! Even after 30 years, we never get enough of recalling dialogues and scenes from Apoorva Sagodharargal and MMKR. Crazy Mohan may have left this world but he will live in our memories forever.