Vinod Mangeshkar had to repay loan that he had taken for his bypass surgery. Sandip Daundkar
In a 200-odd-sq-ft house in the PMC Colony near Dandekar Bridge, resides 60-year-old Vinod Mangeshkar. Undeterred by the limited space, Mangeshkar can be seen sitting in a corner with his colour palette and a canvas, busy drawing a portrait of Raj Thackeray. The tiny room houses various brilliantly-done colourful works by Mangeshkar, who spends his time painting during the day and works as a security guard in a shop at Sadashiv Peth in the evenings. Interestingly, once upon a time, he worked as a backdrop stage artiste for Bollywood films like Waqt, Jhuk Gaya Aasman, Brahmchari, Love in Tokyo, Raaz and others.
In 2010, Mangeshkar had a bypass surgery for which he had to borrow Rs 7 lakh from a few of his acquaintances. In order to repay the amount, he started working as a security guard on a salary of Rs 7,000 per month. “It’s not easy to run the house with my painting work. Firstly, there’s no guarantee of income. Secondly, even if I am able to sell a painting or two, the profit margin is bare minimum,” says Mangeshkar, who stays in PMC Colony with his wife. His 27-year-old daughter is married. The Mangeshkars earlier stayed in a slum and were allotted their current house in a slum redevelopment programme.
Sharing his journey so far, he says that in 1961, when he was around 7, his parents passed away in the Panshet Dam flood. His father’s friend took him to Delhi. After two years, when he too passed away, Mangeshkar was left homeless. He would make his living with the pencil sketches made by him that he sold outside Teen Murti Bhavan. “After a few years, a man who had an eye for art, noticed my work and asked me to go to Mumbai. He even gave me Rs 50 to sponsor my train ticket. In Mumbai, I started working as a backdrop artiste under art director Sudhendu Roy at Kaardhar Studio who paid me a rupee per day. The amount was sufficient for me at that time. I got to make backdrop works for many famous Hindi films. Unfortunately, the studio broke down after two years and I was again jobless. I had to do odd jobs — of a labourer, carpenter, waiter, building painter and so on. But I never lost touch with painting,” he says.
A few months ago, Pune’s Rahul Khismatrao, who’s currently an intern at NASA in the UK, started a crowdfunding campaign for Mangeshkar. “When I met him, I was studying electronics engineering in Bharati Vidyapeeth, Pune, where he was working as a security guard. So, when he showed me his portraits and told me about his debts that he took for his bypass, I started a fundraiser on Milaap,” says Khismatrao. So far, nearly Rs 4.7 lakh has been raised.
“The painting orders have reduced drastically. For instance, during Ganeshotsav, various Ganesh Mandals would ask me to paint their backdrops. Now, they get digital print which are faster. Thankfully, I have a roof over my head and my daughter is happily married. Otherwise, it would have been very difficult. I just want to repay the borrowed money now as soon as possible,” he says.
