G. D. Madgulkar


Gajānan Digambar Mādguḷkar was a Marāthi poet, lyricist, writer and actor from India. He is popularly known in his home state of Mahārāshtra by just his initials as Ga Di Mā. He was awarded Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1951 and Padma Shri in 1969. He has written 157 screen plays and over 2000 songs in his career. He was called Ādhunik Valmiki of current era due to his composition of Geet Rāmāyan as the most notable work. 2019 is celebrated as his Birth Century year. Government of Maharashtra hosts various events and festivals to grace the occasion.

Career

Madgulkar wrote poetry, short stories, novels, autobiographies and scripts, dialogues and lyrics for Marathi as well as Hindi movies. His poems have been adapted to a wide range of musical forms such as Sugam-Sangeet, Bhāwa-Geet, Bhakti-Geet, and Lāwani. Madgulkar entered the world of movies in 1938 at Kolhāpur. He contributed to 157 Marathi and 23 Hindi movies. He was also an artist. He loved to draw nature scenes.
He had knowledge of 10 languages including Marathi, Hindi, English, Urdu, Bengali, Gujarati, Punjabi, Kannada, Tamil and Telugu.
He was the elder brother of Marathi writer of poetry and novels Vyankatesh Madgulkar.

Works

Collections of poems

  • Sugandhi Veena
  • Jogiya
  • Char sangitika
  • Geet Ramayan
  • Kavykatha
  • Chaitraban
  • Geetgopal
  • Geetsaubhadra
  • Vaishakhi
  • Pooriya
  • Ajun Gagima
  • Naach re mora

    Collection of short stories

  • Laplele ogh
  • Bandhavarchya babhali
  • Krushnachi karangali
  • Bolka shankh
  • Veg ani itar katha
  • Thorli pati
  • Tupacha nandadeep
  • Chandani udbatti
  • Bhatache phool
  • Sone ani mati
  • Teen chitrakatha
  • Kalavantanche anand paryatan
  • Teel ani tandul

    Autobiographies

  • [|Vatevarlya savlya] वाटेवरल्या सावल्या
  • Mantarlele diwas, मंतरलेले दिवस

    Novels

  • De tali ga ghe tali
  • Mini
  • Shashank manjiri
  • Naach re mora
  • Tulsi ramayan
  • Shabdranjan
  • Aakashachi phale
  • Ubhe dhage aadve dhage

    Plays

  • Aakashachi phale
  • Parachakra

    Monthly magazines

  • Akshar
  • Dharti

    Geet Ramayan

Geet Rāmāyan is considered his most notable work. A lyrical version of the Valmiki Ramayana in Marathi, it consists of 56 songs chronologically describing events from Ramayana. Sudhir Phadke composed the music for Geet Ramayan. Though it is based on sage Valmiki's epic Ramayana, Madgulkar chose a different narrative format and was praised for the lyrics, and was called Ādhunik Valmiki.

Screenwriting

The following is a short list of some of the popular Marathi songs which "गदिमा" wrote:
  • इंद्रायणीकाठी देवाची आळंदी
  • उद्धवा, अजब तुझे सरकार
  • तुझ्या उसाला लागल कोल्हा
  • या चिमण्यानो, परत फिरा रे
  • हे काम ने तडीला, हाजी मलंग बाबा
  • विठ्ठला,तू वेडा कुंभार

    Acting

Awards and recognitions

Madgulkar was born in a Deshastha Brahmin family. He was married to Vidya and they had 3 sons and 4 daughters. The popular Marathi writer, Vyankatesh Madgulkar was his younger brother.
His home in Pune has become a place of attraction for his fans.

Additional information

A strategically placed mango tree on the Film and Television Institute of India campus in Pune serves as a platform for various informal discussions on cinema. G.D. Madgulkar is believed to have given this natural structure the name "Wisdom Tree."