Gajānan Digambar Mādguḷkar (1 October 1919 – 14 December 1977) 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 (गदिमा). 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 (the modern Valmiki) of current era due to his composition of Geet Rāmāyan (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.
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 (light music), Bhāwa-Geet (emotional songs), Bhakti-Geet (devotional songs), and Lāwani (a genre of folk songs in Maharashtra). 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.
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
Mantarlele diwas
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