Mac Mohan came to Bombay to play cricket but ended up sitting atop a boulder occasionally screaming something about 50 thousand rupees, maybe the sun gave him a streak of white hair that was perhaps second only to Indira Gandhi's ice mane (she of course got it for other reasons).
At the start of this year I saw Mac Mohan dancing in a song from Chetan Anand's Heer Raanjha (1970) and then saw him without his without his signature streak, uncharacteristically, doing ChaChaCha ( it seems he did a lot of dancing in year 1964). I was shocked. But nothing prepared me for this:
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Actually I remember a rather strange incident in India's Television space that involved girls stripping in the middle of a busy Mumbai road and Mac Mohan. It happened like this:
In late 1999, Channel V came up with a show called 'V Dares You' in which would ask people to do all kind of crazy stuff for little cash (1,500 Indian rupees or $35). In an episode aired in June 2000, two university girls were dared to strip down to their essentials in the middle of a busy road. A stereo placed next to them, music blaring, they happily went about it. The traffic came to halt, people gathered, girls kept going, crowd was grim - 'A strip in the face of Indian culture. Like cows weren't enough to stop the traffic! Bachao! Bachao!'. It was a nasty scene. Just when you thought it would all end in a tragedy, from across the road towards the girls came running a man with a familiar white steak. An infuriated looking Mac Mohan started waving hands in the air, his expression reading, 'Stop this madness! What's going on? Stop! You can't do this! Don't do this!'. Villain's sidekick to the rescue. And the show was stopped. Girls disappeared. Someone called the police. Later there were arrests (actually the show was already on the watchlist as they had earlier got boys to drop their clothes in Delhi).The show was scrapped, its makers and the channel were dragged to the court on Obscenity charges. It was news for some days but not single report mentioned Mac Mohan.
At the start of this year I saw Mac Mohan dancing in a song from Chetan Anand's Heer Raanjha (1970) and then saw him without his without his signature streak, uncharacteristically, doing ChaChaCha ( it seems he did a lot of dancing in year 1964). I was shocked. But nothing prepared me for this:
giving 'mouth-to-mouth resuscitation' to his girlfriend(!) Laverne Hall
Found it at Picasa Galley of Karen having old Magazine scans -0-
Actually I remember a rather strange incident in India's Television space that involved girls stripping in the middle of a busy Mumbai road and Mac Mohan. It happened like this:
In late 1999, Channel V came up with a show called 'V Dares You' in which would ask people to do all kind of crazy stuff for little cash (1,500 Indian rupees or $35). In an episode aired in June 2000, two university girls were dared to strip down to their essentials in the middle of a busy road. A stereo placed next to them, music blaring, they happily went about it. The traffic came to halt, people gathered, girls kept going, crowd was grim - 'A strip in the face of Indian culture. Like cows weren't enough to stop the traffic! Bachao! Bachao!'. It was a nasty scene. Just when you thought it would all end in a tragedy, from across the road towards the girls came running a man with a familiar white steak. An infuriated looking Mac Mohan started waving hands in the air, his expression reading, 'Stop this madness! What's going on? Stop! You can't do this! Don't do this!'. Villain's sidekick to the rescue. And the show was stopped. Girls disappeared. Someone called the police. Later there were arrests (actually the show was already on the watchlist as they had earlier got boys to drop their clothes in Delhi).The show was scrapped, its makers and the channel were dragged to the court on Obscenity charges. It was news for some days but not single report mentioned Mac Mohan.
Dear vinayak ji
ReplyDeleteexcellent , You brought memories of Mcmohan.. I saww him possibly in 1976 when we were invited to see shooting of Kabhie Kabhie in Hotel oberoi Palace ( Now Hotel Lalit Grand Palace Srinagar).He was with another unit shooting some other movie.He sipped tea under a chinar tree sitting in the lawn with Mr Mukerjee manager Finance of the hotel who was also known to us as we were bankers to the oberois.He appeared to be introvert and shy individual and very little informed about world around him. We sat with him for 15 minutes and then moved to watch Amitabh and Rakhee shooting nearby.Any way on celluloid he left his mark as SAMBHA in sholay
Mac Mohan saw a lot of struggle in the beginning, he would keep going to Chetan Anand asking for more work. A recent movie 'Luck by Chance' kind of paid tribute to Mac 'Sambha' Mohan. He makes a guest appearance in the film as himself and gets to say only one line (on popular request) in the film, 'Poore Pachaas Hazaar'.
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah Kashmir was a The place for shooting movies in Kashmir. (And Sambha is actually a town in that State! Ha!)Thanks for dropping in Autarji! You are a great source for stories on Kashmir.
That's a great story! I love Macmohan. He's been around for a long long time...
ReplyDeleteYes, he has been around for a long long time. These days he is mostly working in Haryanvi and Bhojpuri films.
ReplyDeleteThe man on the mount -Mac Mohan
ReplyDeletepassed away on 10 May, 2010. End of an era.