Muralidhar Gode

Muralidhar Gode, also known as the magician of words, was a Poet and Lyricist born on 18 June 1937. He died on 19 March 2020. His hometown was in Thane. He resided at Bhaskar Colony in the Naupada area of Thane. He had a wife, two married daughters and grandchildren. He has a close friendship with former Chief Minister Manohar Joshi. He studied till 5th in a Municipal School. He had to move to Mahad due to his father's job and complete his school education from there. He completed his college at Ruiya and Siddharth College in Thane, Mumbai. He did MA and B. Ed in Sanskrit and Ph. D in Adult Education. 

He was a Professor in the Adult Education Program at Mumbai University for 20 years. He was a Cabinet Minister and the President of the Maharashtra State Literacy Council from 1996 to 1999, during which he wrote many books, articles, guides, and street plays for literacy. His two books won the Maharashtra Government Award. He broadcasted 100-plus compositions of different forms for Bombay Akashvani and about 100 songs for Doordarshan, which also had some title songs. He also wrote 15 feature films, 20 short films, and 50-plus jingles for TV and radio. 

The songs Prithichan Zulzhul Pani, Mi Kashala Arshat Pahu, Are Le Lo Bhai Chivda Lelo, and Hey Gard Nile Megh, Bilgun Jashi Vij in the Marathi movie Banya Bapu released in 1977, were big hits of the time. He received many awards, which include Municipal Corporation's Thane Nagar Ratna Award, World Elderly Day Award, Kahade Samajbhushan Award, Swadhantra Veer V. Da Savarkar Award, and UNICEF's Best Street Theatre Award. Muralidhar Gode has written the title song for the Balkhazina, a set of 100 books published by Vyas Creations in 2010. He also wrote songs for Kiran Nakati's movie Cinderella, like Dholtasha and Dilachi Rani Aali.