Deenanath Mangeshkar - Career

Career

Dinanath Mangeshkar started taking singing and music lessons from Shri Baba Mashelkar at the age of five. He was also to become a disciple at Gwalior school. He was fascinated by the variety & aggressive style of Gayanacharya Pt Ramkrishna bua Vaze and became gandabandh shagird. In his youth, he traveled to Bikaner and took formal training in classical music from Pt. Sukhdev Prasad, father of Pt. Mani Prasad, of the Kirana Gharana. He joined the Kirloskar Sangeet Mandali and the Kirloskar Natak Mandali at the age of 11. Later, he left Kirloskar Mandali, and formed Balwant Mandali with his friends Chintamanrao Kolhatkar and Krishnarao Kolhapure. This new group had Gadkari's blessing, but shortly after the group was formed, Gadkari died in January 1919.

Dinanath's good looks and melodious voice won him popularity on the Marathi theatre. So much so that the then giant of the Marathi stage, Bal Gandharva publicly declared that he would welcome the entry of Deenanath in his organization "by throwing a carpet of rupee coins under his feet".

During the period of 1935, he produced 3 films, one of them being Krishnarjun Yuddha. It was made in both Hindi and Marathi, and a song from it, sung by and filmed on Dinanath. Dinanath also studied Indian classical music music under Ramkrishna Vaze. He also studied astrology.

Partly out of his interest in astrology and numerology, he believed that dramas with 5 letters, with anuswar on the third letter, were lucky for him. Examples : Ranadundubhi (रणदुंदुभी), Rajsanyas (राजसंन्यास), Deshkantak (देशकंटक).

He was the first musician to openly defy the British Empire by performing and singing songs penned by Veer Savarkar in the presence of the British Viceroy, in Simla.

The dramas produced by Dinanath were extremely popular amongst the masses due to his masterly presentation of the songs composed by Vaze bua and the patriotic content.