Mohan Rangachari known professionally as Crazy Mohan, was an Indian actor, comedian, screenwriter and playwright. An engineer by profession, Mohan started writing plays and established his own drama troupe called "Crazy Creations" in 1979. In addition to dramas and tele-serials, Mohan worked as a dialogue writer on a number of comedy films. Mohan had written over 30 plays, worked on over 40 films, having cameo roles in each film, and written 100 short stories. He died on 10 June 2019 due to a cardiac arrest.
Career
Mohan was a student at the College of Engineering, Guindy, where he graduated as a mechanical engineer in 1973. His guide was his classmate S. Ravi, who was the President of Tamil Mandram. Before becoming a full-time writer, Mohan was working at Sundaram – Clayton Limited. At the College of Engineering, Guindy, in Feb 1972, he first wrote Great Bank Robbery, a skit for an intra class contest within the Guindy Engineering college for which he received the Best Writer award. It was followed by scripts for his younger brother Maadhu Balaji's drama troupe at Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda College, Chennai. The first full-length play he wrote was Crazy Thieves in Paalavakkam for Natakapriya in 1976, which was a runaway hit and gave him the nom de plume "Crazy" Mohan. He also wrote scripts for Tenant Commandments and One More Exorcist. After writing for other productions, Mohan decided to start his own troupe and founded Crazy Creations in 1979. The troupe has since created over 30 plays with original scripts and staged over 6,500 shows all over India and abroad. His play Chocolate Krishna had been staged 500 times within three years. His brother Maadhu Balaji, who is an actor, plays the hero in all his dramas. The first feature film he worked on was K. Balachander's Poikkal Kudhirai for which he wrote the dialogues. The film itself was based on Mohan's drama Marriage made in Saloon. He went on to write dialogues for several comedy films, particularly starring Kamal Haasan, which include Sathi Leelavathi, Kaathala Kaathala, Michael Madana Kama Rajan, Apoorva Sagodharargal, Indian, Avvai Shanmughi, Thenali, Panchathanthiram and Vasool Raja MBBS. The 2006 filmJerry had a story and screenplay by Mohan and featured Mohan's entire theatre team, including its director S. B. Khanthan. He has also acted in supporting or cameo roles in the films he wrote the dialogue or script for. In 1989, he also began producing television comedy series. Serials he produced include Here is Crazy, Kalyanathukku Kalyanam with over 600 episodes and Vidathu Sirippu'', with the latter winning the Best Comedy Serial award from Mylapore Academy in 2005. He also wrote 100 short stories. Mohan was also a distinguished artist who has sketched/painted nearly 60 aesthetic paintings, including portraits of spiritual leaders and eminent personalities, Raja Ravi Verma’s portraitures and portraits of Gods and Prophets. Mohan penned at least one Venba every day—over 40,000 Venbas in his lifetime.
Awards
State awards
The Tamil Nadu state government awarded him with ' Kalaimamani ' title for excellence in the field of arts and literature.
Mohan is a donor and philanthropist for over 39 years. He has contributed donations towards heart surgeries, kidney transplants from the proceeds from the sale of his drama tickets. Donations to the Cancer Institute, Adyar run by Dr. V.Shantha, since 1999. The proceeds from the sales of his book- 'Crazy about Ramana' are re-directed towards educating Indian cultural and values to poor children studying in Government schools.
Works
Theatre
Some of his popular Tamil dramas as a dialogue writer and actor are listed below.
Mohan complained of stomach pain and breathlessness in the morning of 10 June 2019. His brother Maadhu rushed Mohan to Kauvery Hospital. A team of doctors worked on Mohan for hours to revive him. All efforts to revive him failed. Mohan was declared dead at around 2:00 PM IST the same day.
