On April 11, 1976, a young playwright was set to showcase his first ever show to an audience in Chennai. Barely over 20 years old, Rangachari Mohan, an engineering graduate from Mandaveli, was unaware that his heist-gone-wrong comedy would catapult him to unimagined heights. And as screens opened to Crazy Thieves in Palavakkam what followed was one hundred minutes of constant laughter and chuckles that would earn this accidental writer both fame and a sobriquet – ‘Crazy’ Mohan.
“His first play was so wacky, I can’t begin to describe it,” says V Sriram, a city based historian. “In the late 1970s, for those living in Mylapore, Adyar was considered the outskirts of Chennai. And that is when we came to know that some people were going to areas like Pallavaram, Palavakkam and Thiruvanmiyur to build houses where there were no other residents. This play was a comic take on this entire phenomenon,” he adds.
By his own admission, Crazy Mohan saw Mylapore and Mandaveli as his home. In one interview he had even joked that he got homesick if he travelled as far as Mambalam. And his play reflected his upbringing and an unexpected quirky sense of humour.
“Everyone in Mylapore used to make fun of people who went so far to build houses and this plot used that,” explains Sriram. “A gang of kidnappers take over a house in Palavakkam and the residents are unable to do anything because they have no neighbours to call for help. These thieves kidnap a boy and decide to let him go after his parents pay ransom. The story is about how he finally returns to his parents. But in the next scene the door bell rings again in Palavakkam and it turns out another gang of robber have kidnapped the same boy and brought him. It ends with the dialogue ‘Adhe Payyan, Adhe Veedu’ (Same boy, same house). I will never forget that plays, it was hilarious,” laughs Sriram.
The play became so popular that Mohan began to be recognised by its name, even though he was churning out several more scripts and short stories.
“To my surprise, a short story that I had given to Ananda Vikatan titled Karigala Karigala was printed under the name Crazy Mohan,” he told Scroll in an interview. “The name was very unfamiliar, so I asked the editor V Srinivasan as to why he had printed it that way. He told me, from now on, you are going to be Crazy Mohan. My thatha [grandfather] gave me my name and the Vikatan thatha gave me my screen name,” he adds.
But even showcasing this first play, proved to be a huge challenge for the legendary comic writer. In the late ‘70s, Chennai had 120 sabhas and 124 troupes in the city and getting a slot was no mean task. His also came out at a time when greats including Cho Ramaswamy, Manorama and SV Sahasranamam were still active in the theatre scene. This meant that sabhas moved on to other plays within just 24 hours of showing Crazy Thieves of Palavakkam. It was almost a stroke of luck that turned things around for Mohan.
“By chance we were invited to the Kumudam office to perform for their staff,” explained SVe Sekhar in an interview to The Hindu. “They were very impressed and asked for the script to be serialised. When sabha secretaries read the play, offers started pouring in once again,” he added.
Soon audio versions of the play were released and Mohan went on to use his newly earned sobriquet to launch his troupe Crazy Creations, along with his brother R Balaji in 1979. After producing numerous shortplays he entered the world of television through the serials Here is Crazy and Siri Siri Crazy. A household name by then, he was launched into the world of cinema with K Balachander’s Poikkal Kuthirai, a movie based on Mohan’s play Marriage Made in Saloon.
He would go on to write the screenplay for numerous films soon after including mega-hits starring Superstar Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan. But his brand of humour always remained fresh.
“His humour was refreshing and never meant to hurt anyone,”says Sriram. “Most importantly, his characters carried a sense of innocence. They were untouched by external factors. He was like the PG Wodehouse of our times.”
Source: The News Minute