Tamil cinema has lost its genius humourist with the death of Crazy Mohan on June 10. A scriptwriter and drama artiste, Crazy, as he is fondly called, passed away around 2 PM at Kauvery hospital in Chennai due to cardiac arrest. He was 66.
Born as Mohan Rangachari, Crazy Mohan, wrote his first play when he was an engineering student in 1972, for an inter-college festival at College of Engineering, Chennai.
The play ‘Great Train Robbery’ earned him the best actor and best writer award, first of the many to follow in his four-decade-long career including a Kalamamani award, an award for excellence in art and literature awarded by the Tamil Nadu government.
Mohan’s first full-length play ‘Crazy Thieves in Palavakkam’ for Natakapriya in 1976 was a run-away hit and gave him the pen name ‘Crazy’. It since became a name people have come to associate with him.
Before his movie debut in 1983, he joined his brother Madhu Balaji’s drama troupe where he wrote several plays like Chocolate Krishna, that was staged 500 times in India and across the world.
Aishwarya S, an ardent fan of Crazy caught his play Chocolate Krishna when she was in college a decade ago. "I have never laughed so much in my life. It was a pure situational comedy. He was a genius," Aishwarya reminisced.
She has been following Crazy's plays since then, including his next popular drama Google Gadothgajan. With his demise, his plays that are houseful most often than not will never be the same again, she added.
Crazy Mohan also starred in several television plays such as Vidadu siruppu, Madhu Cheenu and Nil Gavani Crazy that still have a huge audience.
He is most popular for his collaborations with actor-turned-politician Kamal Hassan. The collaborations produced many of Kamal’s hit movies be it Michael Madhana Kamarajan (MMK) in 1990, Avvai Shanmugi in 1996, or Vasool Raja MBBS in 2004.
Kamal and Crazy have been more than just associates. They were close friends through decades of partnership. The fact that they have not worked together much since 2004, had no impact on their relationship.
Kamal in a statement described Mohan as a genius when it comes to humour. "He was a friend who was innocent, witty and modest, a combination one rarely sees in the cine field. This is not the end for our friendship, for he will continue to live through his works," he stated.
"Kamal and Crazy Mohan are a golden combination. There is an amazing chemistry when these two come together. I still laugh when I watch Michael Madana Kamarajan and I have seen it at least a dozen times. It is my remedy for a bad day at work," said Srinivasan S, a hardcore fan of the combo.
The reason Crazy is popular and mourned by people across generations could be attributed to the kind of comedy he popularised. His works are not run-of-the-mill jokes or the adult comedy that has become mainstream now. One could say it was reflective of the man himself, who saw the humour in everyday life, in its innocence and harshness.
It could be Kameshwaran, the cook in MMK and his romance with Thirupurasundari, or the scared-cat Thenali from the movie Thenali, trying to overcome his fear of everything. Comedy was never forced, but rather a slice of life.
Probably nothing more describes this genius than a line from his own work, "Take it easy, life is crazy."
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