Dr Shreeram Lagoo bid adieu with full state honours, no last rites

Dr Shreeram Lagoo was given full state honours by the Maharashtra government with a 21-gun salute.

A teary Deepa Lagoo gazed long at her beloved Dr Shreeram Lagoo, kept in a special glass coffin, before it was taken for electrical cremation. Dr Lagoo, an acting legend and a rationalist, breathed his last on December 17 due to old age. He was cremated today at 12.30 pm after the arrival of his son Dr Anand Lagoo, from the US.

Dr Shreeam Lagoo was a well-known film personality.

Dr Lagoo was given full state honours by the Maharashtra government with a 21-gun salute and wreaths laid at his coffin by Subhash Desai, minister, who flew in from Nagpur. He was followed by Pune divisional commissioner, Deepak Mhaisekar, and other top officials at the Vaikunth crematorium in Pune.

Earlier, Dr Lagoo’s fans and admirers trickled in from as early 8.30 am for one final glimpse of the legendary actor. A number of prominent people, including Girish Bapat, MP, Mayor of Pune, Murlidhar Mohol; MNS leader Raj Thackeray were among those who paid their respects.

The theatre and cinema industry was represented by celebrities Nana Patekar, Subhangi Gokhale, Sumitra Bhave, Jyoti Subhash, Leela Gandhi and Amol Palekar. They described Dr Lagoo’s demise as a personal loss and lauded his fearless support for social causes.

Eminent social activist Baba Aadhav became emotional while talking about Dr Lagoo’s participation in various satyagrahas, especially one at Shani-Shingnapur, where Dr Lagoo had accompanied him and the anti-superstitions crusader Dr Narendra Dabholkar and observed a sit-in dharna outside the jail and later at the court in Ahmednagar. They succeeded in getting justice for women’s temple-entry at Shani-Singnapur, he said.

“He was a man of firm notions and had come prepared to sit for days on satyagraha. He was also the one to bail us out of court in many other instances,” said Aadhav.

Actor Urmila Matondkar, was shaken and couldn’t control her tears as she looked at the pale face of Dr Lagoo in the coffin at Vaikunth. “It is a great loss not just for the film industry and theatre but to society as well. Not many people know, but he gave me my first break in his film Zaakol, where Govind Nihalani was the cinematographer. After the first shot, Dr Lagoo picked me up and said to Nihalani, that one day she will be a big star and that she is my discovery.”

Matondkar said, “I wish people could get to know the man he was, and on his demise I think I owe him that much that people know about him, a great rational human being.”

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