Mac Mohan,born on 24th April 1938, as Mohan Makijani, is one of the most popular faces of Hindi Cinema. Playing a strong support to the Villian in many movies, Mac Mohan came to be recognised as the "Stars" among Henchmen of the Big Bad villians. Audiences would swear by his allegiance to the "Bad Guy" & wonder, if the Hero only had as able a support as Mac Mohan, how better things could have been for him
Born as Mohan Makijani, in the Pre Indepence Karachi,in the year , in a family of a an Indian serving in the British Army. Macmohans family soon moved to Lucknow- It is here that he completed his formal education. Not many people know, that the Veteran actor Sunil Dutt & Macmohan went to the same college. Mac Mohan also happens to be Actress Raveena Tandons Maternal uncle
Macmohan had come to Mumbai to become a cricketer, however Fate had other plans. He learned acting at the Filmaya School of Acting in Mumbai. He started his Filmi Career with Director Chetan Anand & debuted in his film Haqeeqat in 1964. The Dharmendra starrer went on win the National award. Mac mohan continued to play small roles in movies. One of the turning points in his Career came with Ramesh Sippy's Sholay, released in 1975. This movie not only further established Amitabh Bachchan as the Next Big Thing, but also gave Bollywood, its most remembered Dacoit Character of Gabbar Singh, played to ruthless perfection by the Late Amjad khan
Macmohan was supposed to have a significant role in the movie & was counting on this movie to establish his mettle as a star. However post editing, a lot of Macmohans role was chopped. This did not go do down too well with the actor, & its said, that he did nott even go to see the movie trials. In one of the Incidents mentioned in an Interview, Mac Mohan says that, One day while taking his father for shopping, a lot of people recognised him & surrounded him & his father, pestering them with snides & jibes. MacMohan could realise that these were in connection to the potrayal of his role as Sambha the Dacoit, who plays Gabbar singhs, key henchman. Macmohan decided to watch the movie & realised that although the screen length of his role was too small, but he made a big impact with this role
Helped by the fact that Sholay went on to become the most iconic cinema of Hindi Films, Sambha, as a character, soared in popularity, with many people enacting the famous scene in their daily lives. MacMohan continued to play the henchman in many movies thereafter. He also worked in Punjabi, Bhojpuri, Haryanvi & many other Laguage movies. MacMohan is the only actor, whose real name has been used as his screen name in many movies, as many of his characters have been called Mac
His last appearence was in Zoya Akhtars, 2007 Release, Luck By Chance, where he plays himself as MacMohan. He died of Lung Cancer on 10th May 2010. A gentleman to the core, very well read & a fine human being, is how all his colleagues remember him
Rest In Peace, Sambha !!!
