Crazy Mohan
Crazy Mohan, born Mohan Rangachari (16 October 1952 – 10 June 2019), was an Indian actor, comedian, screenwriter, and playwright renowned for his humorous contributions to Tamil theatre and cinema.[1] A mechanical engineering graduate from the College of Engineering, Guindy, in 1973, he initially pursued a career in engineering before transitioning to the arts, where he earned his nickname "Crazy" from his debut play Crazy Thieves in Palavakkam in 1976.[2] He co-founded the theatre troupe Crazy Creations in 1979 with his brother Maadhu Balaji, staging over 6,500 shows worldwide, including popular works like Chocolate Krishna, which ran for more than 500 performances in three years.[2][1] Over four decades, Mohan penned more than 30 plays and 100 short stories, emphasizing satire and clean, intelligent humor devoid of vulgarity.[1][3] Mohan entered Tamil cinema in 1983 with Poikkal Kudhirai, an adaptation of his play Marriage Made in Saloon directed by K. Balachander, marking the beginning of his prolific screenwriting career.[2] His collaborations with Kamal Haasan produced some of Tamil cinema's most acclaimed comedies, including Michael Madhana Kama Rajan (1990), where he crafted witty dialogues and puns for Haasan's quadruple roles; Sathi Leelavathi (1995), featuring memorable "kongu" Tamil lines; Avvai Shanmugi (1996), a slapstick hit inspired by Mrs. Doubtfire; Kadhala Kadhala (1998), with its fast-paced romantic cons; and Panchathanthiram (2002), a situational comedy ensemble.[4][2] He also contributed to films like Magalir Mattum (1994), addressing workplace harassment through humor; Chinna Vathiyar (1995), adapting his play Madhu +2 with sci-fi elements; Arunachalam (1997) for Rajinikanth; and Vasool Raja MBBS (2004), where he wrote dialogues and appeared as Margabandhu.[4] Mohan's style was defined by sharp one-liners and repartees that blended everyday language with clever wordplay, influencing Tamil comedy for generations.[3][4] In his later years, Mohan continued writing poetry, including 15 venbas on Lord Krishna just before his death and a work titled Ramanayanam on Ramana Maharishi set to music.[2] He passed away on 10 June 2019 at age 66 due to a cardiac arrest at a hospital in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, leaving a legacy as a "legend" of southern Indian entertainment.[1] Through Crazy Creations, he also supported charitable causes, donating proceeds from drama tickets to fund heart surgeries and kidney transplants.[5] His work remains a cornerstone of Tamil humour, celebrated for its wit, accessibility, and enduring appeal.[4]Early life
Family background
Mohan Rangachari, professionally known as Crazy Mohan, was born on 16 October 1952 in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.[6][7] He was raised in a large joint family in the city's ancestral home, a setting that fostered creativity and close-knit relationships.[2][8] His younger brother, Balaji—later known as the actor Maadhu Balaji—grew up alongside him, sharing a bond that extended into their professional collaborations. The family environment emphasized humor and theatre, with early exposure coming through their grandfather, V.K. Venkatakrishna Iyengar, a former actor who encouraged Balaji's interest in performance and indirectly influenced Mohan's creative leanings.[8][9] This upbringing in a supportive joint family nurtured Mohan's interest in literature and humor, rooted in everyday middle-class dynamics and Tamil traditions of witty storytelling, which later defined his comedic style.[2][9]Education
Crazy Mohan completed his early schooling at Raja Muthiah High School and P.S. High School in Mylapore, Chennai, where a teacher named Janaki inspired his interest in literature and performance by encouraging him to recite lines from plays like Veerapandiya Kattabomman.[2][10] He later attended Karpagavalli Kalanilayam, another corporation school in the city.[11] Mohan pursued higher education at the College of Engineering, Guindy (now part of Anna University), graduating with a degree in mechanical engineering in 1973.[12] After graduation, he began his professional career as a mechanical engineer at Sundaram Clayton Limited, part of the TVS Sundaram Industries group, where he worked for about a decade from 1973 until the early 1980s.[13] This stable employment allowed him the security to pursue creative writing alongside his technical duties, often late into the night.[14] During his school and college years, Mohan developed early creative hobbies, including writing short plays, stories, and engaging in painting, though he had not yet entered professional theatre.[10] His engineering training contributed to a structured, precise approach in his later scriptwriting endeavors.[15]Career
Entry into theatre
Crazy Mohan's entry into theatre began in 1976 when he wrote his debut full-length play, Crazy Thieves in Paalavakkam, for S. Ve. Shekher's Natakapriya troupe.[2] The comedic script, which depicted a group of thieves comically ensnared in a suburban home, earned him the affectionate moniker "Crazy" among theatre circles and marked his initial foray into Tamil stage writing.[2] This work showcased his emerging talent for blending everyday scenarios with humor, setting the foundation for his distinctive style. In 1979, while employed as an engineer providing financial stability, Mohan founded his own drama troupe, Crazy Creations, alongside his brother Maadhu Balaji and a group of friends.[8][2] The troupe focused on producing humorous Tamil plays that emphasized clean, family-oriented entertainment, drawing from middle-class life and cultural nuances.[8] Early productions, such as Allauddin and 100 Watts Bulb, faced initial challenges but gained traction through persistent performances.[8] Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Crazy Creations staged over 30 original plays penned by Mohan, including notable examples like Chocolate Krishna, where he portrayed the titular character in a whimsical reinterpretation of mythology.[16] These works centered on themes of situational comedy and intricate wordplay, often revolving around relatable family dynamics and linguistic twists that elicited laughter without vulgarity.[17][18] Mohan frequently took on acting roles in his own productions, contributing to the troupe's authentic comedic delivery, while Crazy Creations expanded through live performances across Tamil Nadu and beyond, amassing thousands of shows that solidified its reputation in the regional theatre scene.[2][16]Expansion to film and television
Following his success in theatre, Crazy Mohan transitioned to cinema in 1983, beginning with Poikkal Kudhirai, an adaptation of his play Marriage Made in Saloon directed by K. Balachander.[19] His collaborations with Kamal Haasan started around 1989 and proved pivotal, notably contributing to Michael Madana Kama Rajan (1990), a comedy directed by Singeetam Srinivasa Rao, where Mohan's witty wordplay and situational humor played a key role in the film's enduring appeal.[20][21] This partnership leveraged Mohan's theatre-honed skills to craft dialogues that blended puns, satire, and relatable domestic scenarios, thereby broadening his reach beyond stage audiences.[22] Over the next two decades, Mohan became a prolific figure in Tamil cinema, contributing as a writer and actor to more than 40 films. He often appeared in cameo roles, infusing his performances with the same eccentric charm that defined his stage persona, while his screenplays and dialogues emphasized clever linguistic twists and ensemble dynamics.[23] These works frequently involved close ties to his theatre troupe, Crazy Creations, which served as a talent pool for scouting actors and refining comedic timing before adapting it to film formats.[24] In 1989, Mohan extended his influence to television, capitalizing on the growing popularity of Tamil serials to disseminate his humor to a wider, home-based audience. He entered the medium through teleplays and serials on Sun TV, a leading channel launched in 1993, where his scripts adapted theatre elements like rapid-fire dialogues and absurd situations for episodic formats.[25] This move was facilitated by establishing Crazy Creations as a production entity for TV content, enabling seamless production of comedy series that echoed his stage successes while reaching millions across Tamil Nadu.[26] Mohan's expansion into film and television profoundly shaped Tamil pop culture, embedding his unique brand of clean, pun-laden comedy into everyday lexicon and family entertainment. His contributions popularized situational humor rooted in middle-class life, influencing subsequent writers and performers by demonstrating how theatre's intimacy could scale to mass media without losing its essence.[4]Works
Plays
Crazy Mohan was a prolific Tamil playwright, authoring over 30 plays that were primarily staged by his theatre troupe, Crazy Creations, which he founded in 1979.[1] His theatrical works emphasized clean, family-friendly comedy, avoiding vulgarity, politics, or double entendres, and instead relied on relatable everyday characters like parents and children to drive humor through clever puns, bilingual Tamil-English wordplay, and situational misunderstandings.[26] These elements made his plays enduringly popular, with Crazy Creations performing thousands of shows across India and abroad, including over 5,000 by the 2010s.[27] Mohan's scripts often spanned 150-400 pages, tailored to his troupe's actors, and evolved from simple one-act sketches to full-length productions blending traditional Tamil theatre with modern twists.[26] Mohan's playwriting journey began in the mid-1970s, predating Crazy Creations, with his first full-length work establishing his signature style of whimsical, pun-filled narratives. By the 1980s, following the troupe's formation, his output expanded to include bilingual humor that played on English loanwords and Tamil idioms, appealing to urban audiences. The 1990s and 2000s saw longer-running hits with intricate plots involving family dynamics and comic errors, while the 2010s introduced experimental elements, such as plays targeted at children, though he continued refining his core comedic formula without venturing into unpublished works publicly documented. Many of his plays, such as Chocolate Krishna, continue to be performed by Crazy Creations, exceeding 1,100 shows as of 2024.[28][2][29] Overall, his plays maintained a focus on innocent laughter, with scripts periodically updated only for contemporary references like prices to ensure timeless appeal.[26] Key plays, grouped by decade of premiere, exemplify his humorous techniques. In the 1970s, Crazy Thieves in Paalavakkam (1976), written for the Natakapriya troupe, featured bumbling thieves in a suburban setting, using puns on everyday objects and mistaken identities for laughs; its success earned Mohan his "Crazy" moniker and ran for multiple shows.[2] The 1980s launched Crazy Creations with Alavudheenum 100 Watts Bulbum (1979), a reimagining of Aladdin where a 100-watt bulb replaces the lamp, highlighting misunderstandings between a poor boy and a quirky genie through bilingual quips like twisting English phrases into Tamil contexts; it achieved 100 performances quickly and toured early.[26] Marriage Made in Saloon (early 1980s) followed, revolving around chaotic wedding preparations in a barber shop, where characters' wordplay on marriage customs and salon tools creates escalating confusions, staging hundreds of times globally by the 2000s.[26] The 1990s and 2000s produced several long-running favorites, such as Maadhu +2 (1990s), which pokes fun at a father's dilemmas with his two mischievous sons via pun-laden family banter, amassing over 500 shows.[26] Meesai Aanalum Manaivi (2000s) explores a husband's comical attempts to hide his mustache from his wife, employing visual gags and linguistic twists on gender roles for family-oriented humor, exceeding 700 performances.[26] In the 2010s, Chocolate Krishna (circa 2012) depicted a modern devotee encountering a chocolate-loving Lord Krishna, blending mythological elements with contemporary puns on devotion and sweets, nearing 1,000 shows by 2018.[30] Jurassic Baby (2010s) humorously tackled generational clashes with a "dinosaur-like" infant causing chaos, using misunderstandings across age groups and bilingual tech references.[26] An experimental later work, Google Gadothgajan (2015), targeted children with a tech-savvy elephant god navigating digital mishaps, incorporating kid-friendly puns on gadgets and Ganesha lore for light-hearted education.[29]| Play Title | Premiere Decade | Key Humor Elements | Performance Highlights |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crazy Thieves in Paalavakkam | 1970s | Puns on theft and suburbia; mistaken identities | Runaway hit; multiple shows for Natakapriya[2] |
| Alavudheenum 100 Watts Bulbum | 1970s | Bilingual twists on fairy tales; genie misunderstandings | 100+ shows; early international tours[26] |
| Marriage Made in Saloon | 1980s | Wordplay on weddings and tools; chaotic setups | Hundreds of stagings; global by 2000s[26] |
| Maadhu +2 | 1990s | Family banter puns; father-son confusions | Over 500 shows[26] |
| Meesai Aanalum Manaivi | 2000s | Linguistic gender role gags; visual comedy | 700+ performances[26] |
| Chocolate Krishna | 2010s | Mythology-modern puns; devotional mix-ups | Nearing 1,000 shows by 2018[26] |
| Jurassic Baby | 2010s | Generational misunderstandings; tech references | Part of ongoing troupe repertory[26] |
| Google Gadothgajan | 2010s | Child-focused gadget puns; Ganesha lore | Experimental for young audiences[29] |