Maadhu, Cheenu, Mythili, Janaki and Ramanujam are the names of characters that became a household name in a drama-crazy city way back in 1983.
They were all introduced by well-known playwright and actor Crazy Mohan in Return of Crazy Thieves that ran for 300 shows in under two years at that point of time.
The play with its crazy twists and turns is making a comeback this Thursday from 7 p.m. at Narada Gana Sabha under Karthik Fine Arts’ banner.
“It was written as a sequel to Crazy Thieves in Palavakkam but this one became a bigger success than the first part and was a trendsetter among plays those days,” recalls Crazy Mohan, clutching an old script book of the play, which had only seven scenes. Thumbing through, one found that the book had several empty pages and no climax.
“That’s my usual practice. Even though I had the play in my mind, I did not write the climax till the day before the actual play,” he said.
This play revolves around a secret inter-religious marriage, a bunch of thieves and a bank heist and is being brought back mostly due to great demand from audiences abroad.
“Last year, we travelled 1.50 lakh km staging 41 shows in the U.S., U.K., Muscat, Dubai and other places. This is apart from the 130 shows in India. And audiences everywhere wanted us to return with our old plays. We are beginning with this one,” says Madhu Balaji.