Homegrown talent
Growing up in Tamil Nadu in the 1980s (we turn of the century souls are doomed to sound so old so soon, aren’t we?), one of the most important questions that you were judged on was, “unakku yaar pudikkum? Rijini-ya, Kamal-a?”[1] This question was an important divider, a quick and dirty way of determining if you wanted to continue your acquaintance with the new kid in class, or confer upon him / her the label of “weirdo” (or “loosu”, to use the vernacular) and take comfort in the knowledge that your life would not in the least bit suffer from not having this person in it.
I suspect this is a cultural phenomenon unique to the 80s. I don’t know if my parents were divvied up based on their preference for Sivaji or MGR or who ever was big in their days. And I doubt that this question matters today. Can you imagine letting say, Bharath or the Chimp (aka Simbu) define your identity in any shape or form? (*shudder*)
But as always, I digress. Us 80s kids had one more question that was an almost equally important divider - the Crazy Vs. S.Ve.Sekar question[2] [3]. Like the first question, this one too appears to be a purely 80s hang-up[4].
Personally, I have always firmly been in the Crazy camp. I was introduced to Sekar first. My 
cousin (who being older pretty much dictated most things taste-wise for me in those days) was a big fan, and used to watch his plays. Since I didn’t live in Madras, I used to borrow my cousin’s recordings (I remember the audio tapes of Kaatla Mazhai and Mahabharathathil Mangaatha). I loved them, and tried to hold on to them for as long as I possibly could.
I might have continued life as a Sekar fan ( I remember that that old line “ullae veliyae ullae veliyae ullae veliyae” used to make me laugh uncontrollably), but something happened that changed my loyalties forever. 4 words: Michael Madana Kama Raj.
MMKR is, bar none, my all time favorite Tamil movie ever. And am pretty sure it will retain its position for the rest of my life. There may well be funnier movies, but none will have the “I grew up with this movie” cachet that this one has. I still watch this movie once in a while. I don’t laugh at every joke any more - but just for my favorites (the incident of the poor mama’s false teeth, most scenes involving the dad in the last third of the movie (his wanting to make tea at the tea estate, his wanting to relocate discussions to inside the refrigerator), and others that I love because I remember these are my parents’ favorites (for some reason the line “kizhinjithu, ithula Telungu vera” used to make my Dad laugh the hardest I remember him laughing, the “thiruppu thiruppu” joke that always set my mother off, the “Beem boy Beem boy” thing that one of my cousins used to recite till we were convinced that the gift of speech, especially in boys under the age of 10, was something that the family should be able to turn off at will).
MMKR’s cult status apart, Crazy has done some awesome writing for a number of other movies and of course, there are the plays. I’ll move on after a brief mention of my favorites - A-Ha (my kingdom for the deaf thaatha, and the classic one-liners like “Sweet name. Jangiri”), Aboorva Sagodharargal (Manorama at the police station and Mouli get funnier with reruns and Janakaraj & Shivaji remain as fresh as ever), Thenaali (Dr. Panchabootham & his assistant Ramesh Khanna who always gets Thenaali’s name wrong), and Kaathala Kaathala (I don’t like this movie (too many kadi jokes), and mention it out of fear of legions of Crazy fans issuing a fatwa in my name).
I thought about why I came to prefer Crazy over Sekar. The answer lies in the fact that Crazy is closer to PGW than Sekar is. The intricate plots, characters that spill over from one play to the next, his masterly use of props (in one play, Crazy plays a character who’s supposed to kidnap someone, and goes around begging all the characters in that scene to take the chloroform drenched handkerchief from him, there’s another that involves a sack of coconuts), his use of Madras-English (he gets it bang on - his English dialogues remind me of grandfathers-who-write-to-the-Hindu-editor, convent-taught-kids (think Church Park, DB - the “old” schools), The Hindu, and well just Madras), and his ability to bend language to his purposes (”I mean what I mean, but they can’t be so mean” is a priceless thing to say when your main characters are losing their minds about fish in the Sambar).
S. Ve’s plays are funny too. In her post, Tilo calls him the Seinfeld of Madras. I agree. Seinfeld and Larry David are very funny, but do make their characters likable. The reason you laugh at Kramer or George or Elaine is because they are so uniformly obnoxious that it gives us immense pleasure to watch them falling flat on their faces. All of Crazy’s characters by contrast are immensely likable (at least I find them adorable). They have a Wodehousian detachment from reality. No one is remotely evil, political or social issues of the times are almost never dealt with, characters are mostly bumbling and adorable idiots. If you like your comedy to be of the escapist variety, Crazy’s a fairly dependable sort to turn to.
But of late, it’s a pity to see both Sekar & Crazy stuck in a rut. It’s as if comedians are like Russian dolls and have only so many jokes inside them. Once you’ve gotten to the last tiny doll, you can only reassemble them and start over. But I suppose it doesn’t matter too much, really. All you need is MMKR and your family around to escape from
[1] The truly hair-raising part is that this question continues to be asked. Only this time as an outdated, but nevertheless important conversation starter in arranged-marriage-first-phone-call conversations. Even the possibility that judgements about one’s character or personality are being made on the basis of one’s response to this question is at least one important reason why the process sucks.
[2] Important disclaimer: I haven’t watched any of the plays of either playwright, and my exposure is restricted to the movies they were involved with, the odd audio recording and any crumbs thrown to the masses via television.
[3] Somehow YG Mahendran never figured in this question. At least that was the case in my family. Perhaps there vast numbers of YGM fans out there put me in the, er, “loosu” category on the basis of my answer some secret question that didn’t actually mention his name. To these YGM fans, I’d like to say, “You were right”. I’ve never liked him, and we wouldn’t have had much in common.
[4] Then again, what choice do kids these days have? To actually harbour a preference for Karunas or the hundreds of Karunas wannabes means that you have not only seen their work, but know enough to distinguish between them… When you have been reduced to such lows, it seems too cruel to ask you questions about wit and timing and plot and all the other qualities that mark the good comedian.
Update: For non-Southerners, the closest Hindi example to MMKR is Jaane bhi do yaaron. MMKR is no where as cynical, though. Similarities are limited to the way the plot is set up (layers and layers of carefully planned and executed scenes that all add up to a wonderfully hilarious finale)
Comments (27 comments)
excellent post - have no idea who Karuna is.
You like Crazy plays better than S.Ve because MMKR is great ? OK I’ll buy it :-). I can see your point but just want to pretend I don’t.
But seriously on this Crazy Ghost I want a refund .atrociously bad.
tilo / April 10th, 2006, 11:22 pm / #
MMKR is, simply put, the best piece of comedy made in India. I personally rate it higher than JBDY; in fact, notches above very comfortably. They just don’t make such films, any more!
MMKR had Kamal, Crazy & Singeetham, all in absolutely fantastic form and thus they made what they made.
Where as, in most of the follow-ups, Crazy was the only highlight (with some exceptions like Sathi Leelavathi), which mostly resulted in a flurry-of-jokes session instead of a coherent film. Nevertheless, I liked those jokes too :p.
And the Crazy’s PGW connection is something he mentions in every interview of his. The list of his influences, goes on like Wodehouse, Kalki, Devan etc. and I must confess that I plunged into PGW much after I started loving Crazy.
Sorry to nitpick, but it’s Michael Madhana Kamarajan. Saw you spell it that way in a couple of places.
P.S.:- Sorry, when it comes to MMKR and Crazy Mohan, I go on and on.
Zero / April 11th, 2006, 12:52 am / #
My personal observation has been that S Ve Shekar takes potshots at his fellow actors (on stage) if his co-artistes goof up with the dialogues. Some of his jokes poke fun at individuals too.
In this aspect, the Crazy troupe provided comedy that doesn’t hurt anyone. My vote goes for Crazy. I really enjoyed watching their “Meesai Aanalum Manaivi”.
Kaps / April 11th, 2006, 4:36 am / #
Kaps,
interestingly, there has been such accusations (only the “hurting” part) on Crazy too. Unlike S. Ve. Shekhar, he never takes potshots at celebs or any other individual; but he has got a little flak for making fun of deaf and people with other physical disabilities - something that was not supposed to have been taken seriously, actually.
Crazy’s humour doesn’t dwell anywhere near the “vulgar” side, where as, S. Ve. Shekhar revels in it (not that I mind).
Crazy’s humour (what one can call as the quintessential Brahmin humour) is virtually oblivious to the current events or the latest buzz, where as S. Ve. Shekhar’s dramas caters more to the wider Tamilian junta and is filled with popular references, satiric takes and biting sarcasm.
I think I am hijacking this post. Sorry folks.
Zero / April 11th, 2006, 5:01 am / #
nice post. i wrote about crazy sometime back, but as for the question of him vs s.ve. i don’t believe i can come up with a good answer. it’s a quality vs quantity thing. s.ve. must have like 20 times the plays/scripts that crazy has and that level of consistency has to be admired. but then the natural outcome: much lesser quality than crazy.
also, like zero says, s.ve. deals a lot with current events so the tendency to connect the dots and appreciate the humor of a joke diminishes over time (he has commented in various times about onion prices, houses with “bars” in their numbers (2a-bar-b-bar-c), amma (of course) and even india’s failed rocket missions). my wife also dislikes him because he can get a bit risque (man on the phone to little kid: “appa-amma veetla illiya ma?”; kid:”appa mela paduthirukkaaru”; man: “oh! na apparam phone pannaren!!”), but some of his jokes are so downright silly that you wonder later, why you laughed at them, but next time it plays there you are sniggering again! (”matches are made in heaven? no, matches are made in sivakasi!”)
crazy, of course, is more evergreen, but some of his jokes do tend to repeat (like i mentioned in my post, he has more than once used the “evvallavo mel-a? avane male dhaan, female ille!” joke)
in conclusion (thought it would never come, didn’t you? i too can go on forever on this topic), i love them both and i think i have all their dramas. my all time favorites are crazy’s “meesai aanalum manaivi”(ponnu peru cushion, appa peru sofa-lal! mera naam sofa-lal! mera naam sofa-lal!) and s.ve.’s “kaadhula poo” (ayyaho! paramasivan rounds-ku varugiraar!)
Prashanth Narayanan / April 11th, 2006, 7:43 am / #
Off topic, but whatever happened to Karthik. Missing him here, Doz.
Chenthil / April 11th, 2006, 8:58 am / #
Prashant,
I remember I made a couple of comments there in your old post too (just incorrigible!) though it has vanished now.
I actually thought of quoting “Avaru mela paduthittu irukkaaru” joke when I mentioned “vulgarity” (and it was ayya-amma I think). But the joke wasn’t good as it is. I’d rather loved something like “Masakkai, masakkai! gun party ma paiyyan!” in his impeccable timing. Talking about impeccable timing, without S. Ve. Shekhar, his plays will be irreversibly handicapped (another explanation for Tilo picking him as the stand-up comedian in Tamil), where as Crazy’s plays can quite stand on their own and do not depend heavily a one single actor. (Of course, his gang members rock. I hope you get the difference.)
To pick a particular play among S. Ve. Shekhar’s, “Mahabharathathil Mangaatha” (”‘location‘? Yaar aval?” LOL!) was an absolute delight. Wait, I think I need to think..
And both Crazy and S. Ve. Shekhar have had quite many silly jokes in their plays. Heck, who cares!
P.S.:- I think I have more than made up for my inherent bias for Crazy Mohan :p.
Zero / April 11th, 2006, 9:25 am / #
Yeah, I had commented on your post too Prashant. Rude man, very rude!
Doz, I’ve always loved the SVS brand of absurd humor more than Crazy’s. Of course, SVS had Venkat to write for him. Crazy seems to rely more on wordplay (”Medhurinisa Vaapa Vaivaaru…Vaapaa-neengele Varuvaara?”) while SVS/Venkat had crazy characters spewing outrageous stuff (Unakku Kurithiye Otta theriyaadhe…Unakku thaan kudhiriye solle therliye). But above all, his timing is impeccable. I was watching ‘Alwa’ at Anna Auditorium when during a scene an actor was supposed to faint on stage. He fell down revealing more than he should have, thanks to the “vaeti”. SVS said something like “Vizhardhaan Vizhare…ippidi aabaasama vizhanuma?”. Trust me, it was funny when he said it.
Manoj / April 11th, 2006, 2:45 pm / #
Excellent post. Considering u haven’t seen plays by either, the bias towards crazy is understandable simply because SVS hasn’t written that many scripts. while on crazy, one of his underrated movies I think is ‘pammal k sambandham’. I think his unmatched ability to spin new jokes from old phrases was seen a lot in PMK. The whole kuthu vilakku routine, “keep left”, etc. r real gems
Balaji / April 11th, 2006, 5:12 pm / #
Crazy’s work suites movies very well where S.Ve.Sekar’s doesn’t work well for a full movie…
Cipher / April 11th, 2006, 5:32 pm / #
Tilo: Thank you. Haven’t watched Crazy Ghost, but thanks for the tip. I’ll stay away from it.
Zero: Thanks for catching that. I end up referring to the movie as simply “Michael” with family, and to proclaim it as the best movie and getting the name wrong was a bad mistake. I didn’t know Crazy quotes PGW as an inspiration. I like him all the more for liking PGW now
Kaps: Haven’t watched the plays, but see your point. S.Ve’s always struck me as having a more cruel streak. Funny - but I wouldn’t want to be at the receiving end
To all Meesai Analum Manaivi fans: Thanks for the strong recco. Will try to get at least an audio version somewhere.
Prashanth: Thank you. I didn’t know abt Sekar’s being so prolific. And yeah, to go off at a tangent a bit, I think Vivek’s the same - very topical, but dates easily. But I suspect Crazy gets dated in his own way - if I watched Crazy’s works in oh 40 years from now, I think they’d feel a little bit like watching NS Krishnan today. Dated only because the material is clearly so innocent that one is tempted to think of it as being naive. With S.Ve - I doubt that I’ll even get the joke…So yeah, Crazy will endure longer even if the wit feels slightly duller.
Chenthil: Do not despair. I have it on good authority that he’ll be back soon.
DoZ / April 11th, 2006, 6:00 pm / #
Balaji,
Not to forget the classic line, the gemmest of gems, the holiest of holies,
“Kaathaadikku kooda thaan vaal irukku.. Adhukkaaga korangu parakkuma?”
I just love that line. very context-specific, absurd, brilliant and ingenious. The line (absurdist humour) is not exactly vintage Crazy, a reason why I suspect KH wrote/improvised that line :P.
I feel like adding more about Crazy and S. Ve. But, I rather need to post it on my space, before you all politely ask me to stay out ;).
Zero / April 12th, 2006, 12:22 am / #
Manoj,
Just another sample for SV’s timing, from “Periya Thambi”.
Bystander: “Balam’aa adikkaatheenga’yya.. Ivarukku idhukkum munnnaadi janmam nyabagam vanthura poguthu”
S. Ve.: “Aah, Vanthiruchu! I am Robert Clive. Who is this bloody Indian?”
Trust me too, it’s just fricking funny when he says that :).
Zero / April 12th, 2006, 12:51 am / #
I loved this post. And can relate it so well (naanum grew up in the 80s). Engal votu Crazy-kke.
ammani / April 12th, 2006, 9:05 am / #
off topic alert:
sorry zero and manoj - your comments on my post vanished into the that great big comment-heaven in the sky when i moved my servers and only the posts got copies (blame wordpress.com for not even providing an export option - i had to use rss to get the posts to my local server)
and to second chenthil: karthik (and manoj) where have you guys vanished to, anyway?
Prashanth Narayanan / April 12th, 2006, 1:28 pm / #
oops, submitted before completing: all the valuable comments are still available here
Prashanth Narayanan / April 12th, 2006, 1:30 pm / #
BTW - Is it even possible that you have left Avvai Shanmugi off your list?
tilo / April 14th, 2006, 3:53 pm / #
MMKR rocks.
Kameswaran / April 15th, 2006, 11:00 am / #
I had a chance to chat up with Crazy Mohan about a month back. And, the two of us were repeating MMKR dialogues and PKS dialogues one after the other. PKS had many gems, but the best, according to me, was, as Zero said, “Kaathidikku…” The others in the room were surprised that we were enjoying ourselves with some “inane” dialogues. Crazy said his inspiration was PGWodehouse and even reeled off a couple of lines from some of PGW’s books. According to him, writing dialogues for Kamal is a real tough thing and a challenge one because Kamal is probably the only hero who does full-time comedy movies and two because of his sense of timing and delivery. The “munnadi enna irundhadhu…” in Panchatantram was also superb.
ramki / April 15th, 2006, 11:47 am / #
Balaji- “The whole kuthu vilakku routine, “keep left”, ”
the keep left is in 5thanthiram
which is this kuthu vilaku one?
crazy fan / April 16th, 2006, 3:38 pm / #
The kuthuvilakku one is in PKS. The first time it involves Vaiyapuri and Kamal, when they go to rescue Abbas who has been bashed up by Sneha’s brother and his goons. In the melee, Vaiyapuri gets poked by a guy with a lamp…
ramki / April 17th, 2006, 12:30 pm / #
“keep left” is definitely in PKS. It happens when kamal asks abbas to go out with a woman and sneha & sims see him
ramki’s right about “kuthuvilakku”. crazy had a lot of fun with “vilakka ethitaanga!”
Balaji / April 17th, 2006, 1:16 pm / #
I think PKS was one movie where Crazy went a little to the right of the yellow line, some where definitely “un-crazy” like - stethoscope sequence comes to mind. Not that there is anything wrong with that. But then, we don’t know how much of it was Kamal’s improv.
d.n.a. / April 17th, 2006, 4:53 pm / #
d.n.a.,
There! That’s what I have been trying to tell. Though PKS does have the vintage Crazy material (Balaji has pointed out a few here), there is this absurdist/spontaneous humour that is unmistakably non-Crazy (regardless of whether it was from his pen or not), like the “holiest of holies” that I had quoted.
I am not sure if you meant the same. But if so, cheers! There is one other soul which thinks so. May be, we’ll never know.
P.S.:- The last time I visited this post, I thought “crazy fan” will clear his doubt himself :P. Anyway, both “Keep left” and “Kuthu Vilakku” are from PKS.
Zero / April 18th, 2006, 2:00 am / #
Zero, yes we are resonating. Crazy himself has said writing for Kamal is like painting in a big thoorigai, reason why that combo is so successful. Another instance that comes to mind is the “Kadhala Kadhala” sequence where KH talks with Soundarya lying on the grass and talking about Ramayanam - “Anilukke indha gadhina, Sitapraatikku …..”. That line just cracks me up everytime. Its definitely a Kamal improv, but as you also said in Tilo’s, we will not know for sure.
d.n.a. / April 18th, 2006, 11:35 am / #
I’m here to thank you for this post. I can’t begin to tell you how much of a fan of MMKR I am. Since childhood I’ve prolly seen it, without exaggeration, a good 30 times, and loved every minute. I’m pretty sure I can quote the entire dialogue by rote, which is more than I can say for my entire education. Not to bore you, but yes, yes and yes again: Crazy’s absolutely brilliant!
eyefry / August 27th, 2006, 1:51 pm / #
Two complaints with your post.
a) I have no idea why you Madras bloggers write on and on abt things only other Madras-denizens can understand. Yes I lived there, and can read and follow you perfectly, but it still is disturbing. Its like limiting your world to one little city (big city, whatever), when the whole world is reading. Why, why, why, do you guys have to do this? THE most annoying thing I can think of.
b) “The reason you laugh at Kramer or George or Elaine is because they are so uniformly obnoxious that it gives us immense pleasure to watch them falling flat on their faces”. Obnoxious? Please. If you think they are obnoxious, sorry, you missed the serial entirely. These guys are ALL supposed to be flawed, weird, but normal. I mean normal in the same sense as everyday, common. Not exactly ‘lovable’ like the Cheers guys, the Friends guys and pretty much ALL sitcom guys, but that’s Larry David’s style. And you know George is based on Larry.
oh god / September 5th, 2006, 1:52 pm / #
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