Industry mourns demise of veteran music arranger Anil Mohile

The Hindi and Marathi music industry mourned as the news of the death of veteran music arranger Anil Mohile spread on Wednesday morning. Mohile passed away in Mumbai at 3 am on Wednesday following a heart attack. He was 71.

Mohile was a permanent fixture at stage shows in India and abroad where Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle performed.
He is survived by his wife, a daughter and son Amar, who is also a composer and music arranger.

Mohile suffered a cardiac arrest at his home in suburban Andheri early on Wednesday. Prominent personalities from Marathi and Hindi film industry were present at his cremation in Andheri this afternoon.

Mohile had arranged music for around 85 Hindi and Marathi movies.

Reacting to Mohile’s demise, Lata Mangeshkar said, “We had an association that went back 50 years and shared family ties. He never said no to any request we made. He was a jovial person. I never saw him sad. He always joked.”

DNA spoke to well-known personalities in the music industry who expressed grief over his death and spoke about the void created in the Marathi and Hindi film industries:

Ashok Patki, music director
Anil Mohile was a great musician, as well as a music arranger. Though he carved a niche for himself as a musician, he mastered the art of playing jaltarang. In fact, he was an expert in all kinds of instruments. He worked as an arranger with top music directors such as Kalyanji-Anandji, Naushad, Khayyam, Bappi Lahiri, RD Burman, Shrinivas Khale and Yashwant Deo. He also used to conduct Lata Mangeshkar’s orchestra abroad. He was an expert in notations. Anil’s passing away is the end of an era. There is nobody today who can match up to him. He was a great human being. We knew each other for the last 50 years, and whenever he heard any song composed by me, he used to call me.

Salil Kulkarni, music composer
Anilji was a legendary music arranger. Right from ‘Ya chimanyano parat phira’ to Hindi films, he composed a wide variety of music. He was a great violinist and was an expert in jaltarang as well. He had a complete hold on fast music as well. He was very active for his age. Hence, I was really shocked to hear of his demise.

Kaushal Inamdar, music composer
Anilji had the finest sense of music. His music arrangement for the song ‘Shukratara mand wara’ is considered one of the finest. He was a great guiding force. Though we both never worked together, we shared a great personal bond.
When we were recording for the instrumental version of Marathi Abhiman Geet, I requested him to play jaltarang for the CD and he readily agreed. We first met when he was running a course for music composers at Mumbai University, and I used to go there as a visiting faculty. He used to encourage me a lot, and he also used to make suggestions to improve one’s work. His suggestions used to be very creative and to the point.

Narendra Bhide, music arranger & composer
Mohile was one of the top music arrangers in the Marathi film industry. He experimented with music arrangement. One can say he started a new school of music arrangement. His song ‘Ya chimanyano parat phira’ is a milestone in the field of music arrangement.

He worked with top music directors like Shrinivas Khale, Pandit Hridaynath Mangeshkar and Khayyam. In fact, one always sees a special style of group violin in Khayyam’s songs, which is the trademark of Mohile. Along with violin, he was also an expert of jaltarang and tablatarang. He always encouraged me, and used to call whenever he liked my work. His death is a big loss for the music industry.