Hailing from Annamanada, Thrissur district, the cultural capital of Kerala, Mohan Raghavan is one among those in the domain of visual arts, for whom quality matters than anything else. Ever since his post-graduate studies in Theatre Arts from the Madurai Kamaraj University, Mohan was drawn to the world of cinema. He soon realized it as a medium that suited well for his creative pursuits. Mohan’s rural upbringing created barriers in the initial days, when he started exploring possibilities in the urban spheres of his home state – Kerala. By the late 1990s, Mohan made his mark in the local television industry as an award-winning script writer for serials. As a script writer, he grabbed national attention through the short film – Diary of a House Wife. As he slowly began to find his feet in films, Mohan also found time for theatre, which saw him associate with noted directors like B.V.Karanth, John Martin, Kavalam Narayana Panicker and Maya Tangberg. Since the 1990s, Mohan directed well-known plays that include Antigone, Macbeth, Waiting for Godot and Woyzeck. Opportunities to work as associate director to some of the noted directors in the local film industry, instilled great deal of confidence in Mohan. The turning point of Mohan Raghavan as a film director came through the Malayalam film – T D Dasan Std VI-B, which was well received by the local audience and won acclaim during the latest editions of International Film Festival of Kerala, The Chennai International Film Festival, Pune International Film Festival and selected for the New York's Indian Film Festival, Shanghai International Film Festival. The film is about a young boy’s happiness and dreams brought by his estranged father, who in the end doesn’t turn up, but he nevertheless gets a father. Mohan Raghavan’s creative instincts are oriented towards films that can portray human lives and situations that are not usually identified in normal life. He rose to fame with his debut movie TD Dasan Std 6 B. The movie was very well received by the local audience and it even won acclaim at many international film festivals. Unfortunately, he could not do any film further, as he met with an untimely death on 25 October 2011, aged just 47. He was a lifelong bachelor, and was survived by his mother and siblings.
