GajÃÂnan Digambar MÃÂdguḷkar (1 October 1919 â 14 December 1977, à ¤Âà ¤¦à ¤¿à ¤®à ¤¾ ) was a MarÃÂthi poet, lyricist, writer and actor from India. He is popularly known in his home state of MahÃÂrÃÂshtra by just his initials as Ga Di MÃÂ. 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 ÃÂdhunik Valmiki (the modern Valmiki) of current era due to his composition of Geet RÃÂmÃÂyan (lit. Ramayana in Songs) 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.
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 (light music), BhÃÂwa-Geet (emotional songs), Bhakti-Geet (devotional songs), and LÃÂwani (a genre of folk songs in Maharashtra). Madgulkar entered the world of movies in 1938 at KolhÃÂpur. 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.
Geet RÃÂmÃÂyan (lit. Ramayana in Songs) 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 ÃÂdhunik Valmiki (the modern Valmiki).
The following is a short list of some of the popular Marathi songs which "à ¤Âà ¤¦à ¤¿à ¤®à ¤¾" wrote:
Madgulkar was born in a Deshastha Brahmin family. He was married to Vidya (née Patankar, from Kolhapur) and they had 3 sons (Shridhar, Anand, Sharatkumar) and 4 daughters (Varsha, Kalpalata, Deepa, Shubhada). The popular Marathi writer, Vyankatesh Madgulkar was his younger brother.
His home in Pune ('Panchavati Bungalow') has become a place of attraction for his fans.
A strategically placed mango tree on the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) 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."