'Crazy' Mohan dead: Tamil comedy, theatre giant dies of heart attack

Tamil film and theatre comedy giant 'Crazy' Mohan has died of a heart attack at a hospital in Chennai, The Hindu has reported. Reports of him being in a critical state had been doing the rounds since late Monday morning, and he was declared dead at 2 pm according to the report. 'Crazy' Mohan was 67 years old.

Born Mohan Rangachari in 1952, Mohan assumed the name of 'Crazy' Mohan after the runaway hit of his 1976 play title 'Crazy Thieves of Paalavakkam' for the Natakapriya theatre group. Mohan went on to become a permanent fixture of the Tamil theatre circuit along with his brother 'Maadhu' Balaji.

The duo started their own theatre company, Crazy Creations, in 1979, and were known for their funny plays, many of which ran to packed houses - no mean feat for a state obsessed with its cinema.

Mohan, Balaji and their troupe were soon signed to TV shows, usually in a sitcom format, at the start of the Tamil television boom in the 1990s.

'Crazy' Mohan has also acted in a number of films, usually in comedic roles. He is also known for writing the witty dialogues for a number of films, many of which enjoy the place of cult classics in Tamil cinema, enjoying regular television reruns to this day. Many of these movies for which Mohan penned the dialogues starred Kamal Haasan.

Among a number of awards and at least one honorary doctorate, 'Crazy' Mohan was conferred with the Kalaimamani award in 2004, which is awarded by the Tamil Nadu Iyal Isai Nataka Mandram for excellence in the fields of literature and arts, the state's equivalent of the Sangeet Natak Akademi or the Sahitya Kala Akademi awards.