Chennai: Actor and playwright Crazy Mohan, who was rushed to a private hospital here after he developed cardiac arrest late morning, passed away this afternoon.
An engineer by profession, Mohan started writing stage plays and established his own drama troupe, called Crazy Creations, in 1979.
In addition to dramas and tele-serials, he has worked as a dialogue writer for a number of comedy films. He has written over 30 plays, worked in over 40 films (and played cameo roles in each of these films), and written 100 short stories.
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 film Jerry had story and screenplay by Mohan and featured his 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. Mohan is also a distinguished artist who has sketched/painted nearly 60 aesthetic paintings, including portraits of spiritual leaders and eminent personalities, Raja Ravi Verma’s portraiture and portraits of Gods and Prophets.
Mohan pens at least one venba (Tamil poetic metre) every day. He has penned over 40,000 venbas till date.
Mohan made his comedy pair – Madhu-Cheenu – a household name through his plays. The character Madhu was played by his brother Balaji. Cheenu whose original name was Mohan, passed away last year.