could probably equate this style with what Jayaram did in “Thenali” with flour all over his face and crankily delivering dialogues of Kattabomman. Toasts of these could be seen with Prakash Raj in ‘Vasool Raja MBBS’ , Manivannan’s regular collision at the terrace with “Shanmughi maami” in “Avvai Shanmugi”, even Delhi Ganesh’s encounter with the cycles and walls in the same movie and the bold Palakkad grandma in “Michael Madhana Kaama Rajan” too.

Slapstick Comedy: Slapstick humour is a boisterous form of comedy with chases, collisions and practical jokes where people just do silly things such as tripping, falling over or embarrassing themselves just to make people laugh. Charlie Chaplin who acted in the silent movies, used a lot of slapstick comedy. You could probably equate this style with what Jayaram did in “Thenali” with flour all over his face and crankily delivering dialogues of Kattabomman. Toasts of these could be seen with Prakash Raj in ‘Vasool Raja MBBS’ , Manivannan’s regular collision at the terrace with “Shanmughi maami” in “Avvai Shanmugi”, even Delhi Ganesh’s encounter with the cycles and walls in the same movie and the bold Palakkad grandma in “Michael Madhana Kaama Rajan” too.

Blendword: Blendword comedy is nothing but the creation of funny words by blending two or three words. ‘Manasirundhaal Maarghabandhu’, ‘Deiva machaan’, ‘Bheem-boy, Bheem boy’ are good examples of blend-words. Do I even need to mention the movies’ name?

Sitcom: Situational comedy, commonly known as ‘sitcom’ is a popular type of comedy. A humourous drama based on situations that might arise in day-to-day life. As a matter of fact, every Crazy Mohan works can be termed as sit-coms. The usual husband and wife collisions, work-place humours etc

Banter: The person that comes to my mind when I think of this form of humour is Chandler Bing from the sitcom Friends. Well, Matthew Perry has everyone rolling on the floor with laughter for sure! What can be funnier than passing witty remarks and indulging in some harmless teasing? Banter is a form of comedy that includes all this and much more. What Kamal does in ‘Vasool Raja MBBS’ can more or less be termed as a Banter, be it his comments on the dean or on his own colleagues , ladylove and friends.

Wisecrack: A witty remark about a particular person or thing that is thrown in at a perfect timing, at the spur of the moment, is known as a wisecrack. Do I even need to quote examples for this. Crazy Mohan masters at this.

Blue-Humour: Blue humour is based on subjects like body parts or sex. This necessarily needn’t be vulgar though. You can find this a lot in Panchathanthiram in the scenes where the five friends try to bed Ramya Krishnan and a couple of scenes in Avvai Shanmughi.

Serio-comedy: A comedy with serious elements or overtones can be termed this way. This is similar to what we saw in VasoolRaja MBBS. The ‘Kattipudi Vaidhiyam’ . And yeah, the climax of this movie is a great example too.

Blunder: This is a genre of humour, which involves a character or a comedian making foolish mistakes, which seem humourous to others. There is one person who personifies this genre in humour - Rowan Atkinson as Mr. Bean. Jayram & co do this a lot in ‘Panchathanthiram’ At the heck of the time, they place the dead body at irrelevant places.

Repartee/ Recovery: Witty comebacks, clever replies and droll retorts are all comic repartees. Kamal Hassan does this with the finest of timings in all the movies that he had got associated with Crazy Mohan, particularly the scene at Shreeman’s house in Panchathanthiram about Reddy’s second wife and ‘Pacha Driver’ (Now, isn’t this word a Blendword too??)

Black Humour: Black humour or dark comedy often refers to the juxtaposition of morbid and farcical elements to create a disturbing effect. The Panchathanthiram post-murder scene is a fine example for this.

Nonsensism: Well, the term is pretty self-explanatory, isn’t it? Nonsensism includes any kind of funny nonsense, absurdity without realistic logic. As a matter of fact, all Crazy Mohan works are acceptable non-senses.

Caricature: Caricature involves exaggerated portrayal of a person’s mental, physical, or personality traits in wisecrack form. There are many examples like Prakash Raj in MBBS, Hassan himself in MBBS, Manivannan in Avvai Shanmugi, Jayram in Thenali, Kameshwaran in Michael Madhana Kaama Rajan etc.

Irony: Irony is portrayed through words or actions to express something completely different from the literal meaning. Again VasoolRaja MBBS is a beautiful example, particularly the interval and the climax scene.

Farce/ Travesty: A comedy characterized by broad satire and improbable situations is termed as farce or travesty. A farce is a comedy style, which aims to entertain the audience by means of unlikely, improbable and extravagant situations, disguise and mistaken identity, verbal humor of varying degrees of sophistication. Michael Madhana Kaama Rajan is arguably the BEST example that one can come up with this kinda comedy.

A real master. Isn’t he??

Crazy Mohan doesn’t end himself up with comedies alone. He has touched pretty vindictive subjects like Aboorva Saghodharargal with his own style of mix in it.. and yeah! He has penned dialogues for larger than life movies like Arunachalam too. He is not just a ‘Crazy’ Mohan . But a ‘Crafty’ Mohan too.

On behalf of Behindwoods , Lets wish him the best on his birthday (Oct 16th). Happy Birthday Sir. Hope you keep us entertained more and better .

Thanks & Regards

- Sid
sidthewriter@gmail.com