'''Gajanan Digambar Madgulkar 1919-77)'''

Marathi scenarist, songwriter, actor and poet.
First film as lyric writer: Bedekar’s Pahila
Palna (1942), which was also his acting début.
Achieved prominence in the 50s via his
popular film songs on the radio and on discs
which, following the spread of playback,
evolved the bhava geet: orchestrated songs of
about three minutes duration using simple
emotive lyrics. His texts were mainly sung and
orchestrated by Sudhir Phadke, their Geet
Ramayan record series of 1957 remaining very
popular with the Marathi middle class and a
precursor of the 70s bhajan craze. Often wrote
for Raja Paranjpe (Jivacha Sakha, 1948;
Pudhcha Paool, 1950; Lakhachi Goshta
and Pedgaonche Shahane, both 1952; Oon
Paoos, 1954; Ganget Ghoda Nhala, 1955;
Andhala Magto Ek Dola and Deoghar, both
1956; Pathlaag, 1964). This work dominated
the Marathi cinema in the 50s and 60s and is
associated with the shift, on the formation of
the state of Maharashtra, to a concern with
Marathi identity accompanied by the creation
of industrial infrastructures (and audiences)
based on regional capital. First script,
Shantaram’s Lokshahir Ramjoshi/
Matwala Shayar Ramjoshi (1947; also act),
launched the gramin chitrapat genre of ‘rural’
film typically using dialect, located in a village
and telling of a power struggle between a good
peasant lad and an evil sarpanch (village
elder). Also wrote scripts for Dinkar D. Patil,
the best-known Marathi director in the genre
(Baap Mazha Brahmachari and Prem
Andhala Asta, both 1962). However, where
Patil used the genre as an indigenous version
of the western, Madgulkar’s scripts conveyed a
sense of political awareness in line with e.g.
Vyankatesh Madgulkar’s stories about rural
characters. Wrote prose melodramas, e.g. for
Dharmadhikari (e.g. Bala Jo Jo Re, 1951;
Stree Janma Hi Tujhi Kahani, 1952). Also
adapted mythologicals and historicals to the
studios’ industrial requirements (e.g. Maya
Bazaar, 1949; Shri Krishna Darshan, 1950;
Narveer Tanaji, 1952). Acted in e.g.
Pedgaonche Shahane, Jeet Kiski (both 1952),
Banwasi, Adalat (both 1948).

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