The King Of Comedy Leaves His Fans In Tears

Friends and relatives recall their personal moments, highlight little-known facets of the artist

- B. Kolappan

News of the death of Crazy Mohan plunged scores of fans in the Tamil audience in sorrow, sudden as the announcement was. Social media sites were full of tributes to him, and stars and the public together recalled some of his memorable dialogues from his films, and his plays.

Even recently, he had a very successful run with his play Chocolate Krishna that ran to packed houses, and had multiple seasons in the sabhas. While he dabbled comfortably in films, producing dialogues in his characteristic style, his true love was the stage, his colleagues recollected.

“We’ve known each other since 1975. We are from the same area [Mylapore] and used to meet at a shop. He was a good human being and an artist too, a fact not many knew. He would draw beautiful portraits of Gods,” recalled S. Ve. Shekher, actor and theatre personality.

A typical ‘Mylaporean’, Mr. Mohan was once quoted as saying that he loved Mandaveli and Mylapore so much that he’d feel homesick even if he ‘went to Mambalam’.

Mr. Mohan qualified as a mechanical engineer from the College of Engineering, Guindy, in the 1970s. But his calling was elsewhere and he started his own drama troupe Crazy Creations in 1979.