P.L Deshpande: A Multi talented Personality

Purushotam Laxman Deshpande was born at Gavdevi, Mumbai in 8th November 1919.His childhood was spent at Saraswat Colony, Jogeshwari, Mumbai. He studied in Parle Tilak Vidhyalay. He took his higher studies from Ferguson university, Pune and Hillingdon university, Sangli. His father was a salesman in Adwani paper company and, his mother was a housewife. At the age of 5 he spoke whole speech with expressions which was written by his grandfather, from that day he started liking public speaking. From his age of 12 he started writing speeches for himself, and he also wrote speeches for others too. His father taught him writing stories, poems. His father also thought him singing and playing harmonium. One day he was playing harmonium in front of Bal Gandharva in Tilak Mandir. Bal Gandharva praised him and gave him wishes for his further life. He always studied people and acted the comedy thing of them, it was his writing’s speciality. After his father’s death he took tuitions of harmonium and filled his family’s stomach. He used to give rhythms to songs. He gave rhythms to many Marathi songs like Raja Bade’s Maheraa Zate and Indrayani Kathi which was sang by G. D. Madgulkar and Bhimsen Joshi, the rhythms were also given by him.

He did L.L.B and worked as rational officer and collector, he also worked as a teacher in Oriental High school. After going to Pune he completed his M.A and B.A. In this journey he became a writer, an actor and a dramatist. From 1936 his small plays were aired on radio. He was also a part of AnantKanekar’s audio play Paizar. He created his first comedy character Bhaiya Nagpurkar in 1944. When he was in Ferguson university he acted in dramas like, Chintaman Kolatkar’s Lalita Kunj. In 1948 he wrote “Tuka mhane aata” and “Bichare Saubhadra”. From 1947 to 1952 he wrote many films and acted too. He acted in the famous Marathi film “Gulacha Ganapati” in which he was actor, director, writer and producer. He also acted in film “Vande Mataram” in which her wife Sunita Deshpande also acted. The Marathi film “Dev Bappa” in which he was in the lead role, and the song “Nach Re Mora” is still famous. In 1952 he started working in AIR (All India Radio), he wrote many songs dedicated to gods and speeches too. In 1956-57 he got promotion and became main drama producer and was transferred to Delhi. In that period Sunita and Purushotam Deshpande thought of the famous one-man drama “batatyachi chal”. In 1958 AIR sent him to UNESCO’s studies of media of mass communication at London. Then he became the first television producer. Through DD he showed the dance of Birju Maharaj and also played tabla with him. He was also the first DD’s reporter who took interview of Pandit Nehru.

His main talent was writing stories and dramas. He wrote many great dramas like, “Ti Phulrani”, “Sunder mi honar”, “Teen Paisyancha tamasha” and “Tuze ahe Tuzyapashi”. The types he wrote were traditional drama, comedy drama and comedy character. He also wrote funny books and stories like “Antubarva (story)”, “Mi ani mazha shkatrupaksh” and “Mhais (buffalo)” “Zave tyancha desha (travel book)”.

He also got many awards like “Sahitya kala academy”, “Sangit natak academy “, “Vishnudas Bhave Award”. Not these but very special awards like “Padmabhushan” “Padmashree” and “Maharashtrabhushan”. After laughing everyone he passed away in 12 June 2000 (his wedding anniversary) for laughi ng the god. I salute these writer and P.L. Deshpande.