{"id":71662,"date":"2016-09-03T12:35:17","date_gmt":"2016-09-03T07:05:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vallamai.com\/?p=71662"},"modified":"2016-09-03T14:46:18","modified_gmt":"2016-09-03T09:16:18","slug":"the-master-of-lol-and-rofl-crazy-mohan-reminisces-his-30-year-old-career-indian-express","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vallamai.com\/?p=71662","title":{"rendered":"The master of lol and rofl: ‘Crazy’ Mohan reminisces his 30-year-old career – INDIAN EXPRESS"},"content":{"rendered":"

CRAZY MOHAN<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Chandni U<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Crazy<\/a>
Crazy Mohan with his theatre troupe | Ashwin Prasath<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If someone from within a cemetery calls you to step in, would you go? If \u2018Crazy\u2019 Mohan hadn\u2019t, he wouldn\u2019t be the great theatre artist, actor and writer that he is today. If not for his grandfather, he wouldn\u2019t have found his passion for colours. If he hadn\u2019t read great literary veterans like Kalki and<\/p>\n

PG Wodehouse, he wouldn\u2019t have found his love for Venba poems. He calls it luck. Sitting in his house, surrounded by his trophies, old photographs and curious paintings, we got the veteran to relive a few cherished moments that changed the course of his life.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a cemetery near my home and when I was 32, I stopped by as there was a shooting going on. Suddenly, something within beckoned me and without hesitation, I entered. That was the first time I met Kamal Haasan, who was shooting for Sathya (1988). Then, one day, a car came to my home to take me to Kamal\u2019s house. He then told me that I was writing dialogues for his next film Apoorva Sagodharargal (1989),\u201d narrates Mohan Rangachari aka Crazy Mohan.
\nThis was when he quit his job at Sundaram Clayton. This is a known story but each time he talks about it, he cherishes it!<\/p>\n

\"the<\/a>But what you may not know is that there is another reason behind his resignation \u2014 cynophobia. Mohan is terrified of dogs and if you happen to have a canine in your house, chances are that he wouldn\u2019t step inside. \u201cAfter my night shift, I used to take off in my two-wheeler and a few dogs would chase me from the Gemini Circle to Stella Maris College where another bunch would join the chase till Music Academy. Once, I asked my friend to accompany me, but he only aggravated them more. I\u2019m pretty sure all the dogs in the world hate me now,\u201d he quips.<\/p>\n

Mohan has always lived in a joint family with his grandparents, parents, uncles and aunts. Though there were moments of bickering, they were very comfortable with each other. Did you know that even today Mohan does not handle his bank accounts? His 91-year-old father takes care of his finances. He wouldn\u2019t know what to do in a bank or a post office.<\/p>\n

While discussing this, his brother Maadhu enters and Mohan talks about how his family had influenced his career. \u201cI\u2019m lucky I had Maadhu with me.\u201d Though his two sons did not venture into film and theatre industry, Mohan says he is, \u201cfortunate to have a talented brother\u201d. The first script he ever wrote was for his brother\u2019s drama troupe back in college.<\/p>\n

Another person who inspired the actor in him was his teacher Janaki. \u201cShe used to live next door. She got me the role of Veerapandiya Kattaboman (1959) when I was a child. She would take me to competitions and make me recite dialogues.\u201d Now you know why Maadhu and Janaki are common character names in all his plays!<\/p>\n

Two actors who always make an appearance in his story to fame are Kamal Haasan and Rajinikanth. \u201cI owe all my success to Kamal. He is my visiting card when I do plays and my visa abroad. Do you think I get a red-carpet-welcome because I\u2019m \u2018Crazy\u2019 Mohan? You are wrong. It\u2019s only because I\u2019ve written so many films for him \u2014 Apoorva Sagodharargal, Michael Madana Kama Rajan (1991), Vasool Raja MBBS (2004), Avvai Shanmughi (1996) and Magalir Mattum (1994). I ask his opinion on everything I do, including this interview. Even if I want to write a letter to my wife, I ask him. Such is the nature of our relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n

He shares an incident with \u2018the noble soul\u2019 Rajinikanth, of whom he is an admirer. \u201cRajini is very fond of my father. He would talk to him over the phone at night. I never believed it. So, I called his secretary to find out and was asked to come over. Rajini then told me that he wanted me to write the story and dialogues for Arunachalam (1997). I was elated. Rajini is the bonus in my life!\u201d<\/p>\n

Talking about Crazy Creations that was formed in 1979, he tells us that the troupe still exists \u2014 his other joint family. \u201cThe success of Crazy Mohan is being together,\u201d he says pointing to a photograph of the team, on the shelf. \u201cNeelu, though 80-years-old, is the youngest in our group. He inspires and encourages us. And Kitcha, was the one who sparked the idea of the troupe. During his sister\u2019s wedding, we were eating. That\u2019s when he said, \u2018Why don\u2019t we start a troupe, and you write a new play\u2026\u2019 And the \u2018Crazy\u2019 madness began.\u201d Over 30 plays, 40 films and 100 short stories…and more to come.<\/p>\n

Latest update is that play Crazy Thieves in Palavakkam, is being revived. \u201cWhile Agatha Christie\u2019s Mousetrap is presented by different troupes for over 50 years on Broadway, our Crazy Thieves in Palavakkam, after 40 years, will be inaugurated by S Ve Shekar this month. Everyone loves it and wants it back on stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

We looked through his art work again \u2014 hand-painted and digital. He tells us that his grandfather was his biggest critic. \u201cHe inspired me. Now I\u2019m 65-years-old and if one day, no one wants me to write anymore, I can always find my bliss in paintings, thanks to him.\u201d<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.newindianexpress.com\/entertainment\/tamil\/The-master-of-lol-and-rofl-Crazy-Mohan-reminisces-his-30-year-old-career\/2016\/09\/03\/article3609515.ece<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CRAZY MOHAN By Chandni U If someone from within a cemetery calls you to step…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":226,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[591,500,5],"tags":[1035],"class_list":["post-71662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-literature","category-articles","tag-1035"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","featured_image_urls":{"full":"","thumbnail":"","medium":"","medium_large":"","large":"","1536x1536":"","2048x2048":"","covernews-featured":"","covernews-medium":""},"author_info":{"display_name":"\u0b95\u0bbf\u0bb0\u0bc7\u0b9a\u0bbf \u0bae\u0bcb\u0b95\u0ba9\u0bcd","author_link":"https:\/\/www.vallamai.com\/?author=226"},"category_info":"Featured<\/a> \u0b87\u0bb2\u0b95\u0bcd\u0b95\u0bbf\u0baf\u0bae\u0bcd<\/a> \u0b95\u0b9f\u0bcd\u0b9f\u0bc1\u0bb0\u0bc8\u0b95\u0bb3\u0bcd<\/a>","tag_info":"\u0b95\u0b9f\u0bcd\u0b9f\u0bc1\u0bb0\u0bc8\u0b95\u0bb3\u0bcd","comment_count":"0","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vallamai.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vallamai.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vallamai.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vallamai.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/226"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vallamai.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=71662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vallamai.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71662\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vallamai.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=71662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vallamai.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=71662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vallamai.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=71662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}