Tamil actor, playwright, writer Mohan Rangachari, fondly known as 'Crazy' Mohan passed away on Monday afternoon due to a cardiac arrest. He was 67. The artist was taken to Kauvery Hospital but efforts to resuscitate him failed and was declared dead at 2.14 pm.
Mohan started writing while he was pursuing his engineering at College of Engineering, Guindy. He even went out to pursue a career as a mechanical engineer before he gave it all up to become a full-time writer. His first play was called 'The Great Bank Robbery' and won the best actor and writer award. Ironically, Kamal Haasan was the one who gave him the award, the actor he went on to collaborate with very often in films later on.
The word 'crazy' became his nom de plume after he wrote the play 'Crazy Thieves in Paalavakam' which became a runaway hit. He then went on to form his own theatre group called 'Crazy Creations' in 1979. The troupe performed over 30 original plays in thousands of shows worldwide, the play to be staged the most number of times (500) was 'Chocolate Krishna'.
Mohan ventured into films with K Balachander's Poikkal Kudhirai which was based on one of his plays. Kamal Haasan had a guest role in this film. His comic timing got him opportunities to write dialogues in several films that most starred Haasan. These included Sathi Leelavathi, Kaathala Kaathala, Michael Madana Kama Rajan, Apoorva Sagodharargal, Indian, Avvai Shanmughi, Thenali, Panchathanthiram and Vasool Raja MBBS. He also played supporting roles in these films. The Tamil Nadu government gave him the 'Kalaimamani' award for excellence in art.
Mohan also ventured into television and adapted seven of his plays.
Besides this, he was also a writer, poet and even a painter. He wrote over 100 short stories, 40,000 venbas (classical Tamil poetry) — he wrote one almost every day. He also has over 60 sketches and paintings to his name.
Several fans took to Twitter to express their condolences, one user said -The master of one-liners, wordplay, puns and PJs. In other words, the King of Twitter even before Twitter was invented.
