Dinkar D. Patil ~ MY MARATHI CINEMA मराठी चित्रपट

Dinkar D. Patil (1915-2005) was a prominent Marathi film director, scriptwriter, and dialogue writer during the Golden Era (1950-1990) of the Marathi Film Industry. He directed, wrote scripts and dialogue for more than 60 Marathi films. He also directed two Hindi Films-Mandir and Gharbar. He wrote his famous autobiography titled as Patlache Por (पाटलाचे पोर).

Early life

Dinkar Patil was born in a reputed Maratha Patil family on 6 November 1915. His Birthplace is a small but renowed village Benadi near Kolhapur. From his childhood he was interested in marathi stage shows, marathi plays and cinema. He studied in Kolhapur and completed his B.A. in Literature from Rajaram College in Kolhapur.

Career in Films

Dinkar Patil was a veteran script, dialogue writer and director of Marathi films. In an Golden era of Marathi cinema. His flims depicting rural life with rural themes, he was considered an authority in both script writing and also directing. The script and dialogue of Marathi film with rural theme Jay Malhar were written by Dinkar Patil who later continued in the industry for more than 40 years. He wrote script and dialogue for 62 films and directed 35 films including two Hindi films, Mandir and Gharbar. He received a number of film awards including the prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke Award .

Patil had an illustrious career as a filmmaker for almost five decades from the 1950s to the 1990s. He started his film career doing small jobs in the Maharashtra Film Company owned by Baburao Painter at Kolhapur, and eventually became an assistant director to Master Vinayak and later transitioned into a film director. He directed and wrote scripts for films. He was one of the early filmmakers to realize the importance of the film medium as an instrument of social change and used it successfully to advocate socialism from his films.

Dinkar Patil introduced Marathi Lavani in his films, which made his films more popular. He was closely related to Jayaprabha and Shalini Studio in Kolhapur. Also, he made valuable efforts in establishing Marathi Film City - Chitranagari in Kolhapur.

UP's and Down's

Patil worked closely with leading film makers and artists such as V. Shantaram, Master Vinayak, Bhalji Pendharkar, Narayan Hari Apte, Lata Mangeshkar, Vekatesh Madgulukar, Chandrakant and Suryakant Mandhare etc. During his long span and career, Patil faced a number of difficulties. Under the burden of a huge loan, he once had to declare insolvency. However, he continued writing and directing films which later gave him both money and reputation. Being inspired by Master Vinayak, the pioneer actor and director in Marathi films and who was also teacher during Patil’s school days, later on Dinkar Patil dedicated himself to the career in Marathi films. He also respected Bhalji Pendharkar as his Guru, particularly in script writing.

Director Dinkar Patil gave Jayshree Gadkar a break in a small role and dance in his Marathi Movie "Disat Tasa Nasat", with Raja Gosavi. This paved her way into mainstream Marathi cinema.

He also directed documentary films for the Government of Maharashtra including Co-operative Parishad held in Pune under chairmanship of Cooperative leader of Maharshtra- Gulabrao Patil, who was his cousin brother.