In November this year, for the first time, Shashi Kapoor was not present at the opening of the Prithvi Theatre Festival. His customary spot by the entrance to the theatre, just outside the cafe, was vacant... his failing health did not permit him to attend. He was missed, somehow the event was not the same without him. In 2015, Shashi Kapoor was honoured with the Dada Saheb Phalke Award for lifetime achievement. The wheelchair-bound star was unable to go so the medal came to him in a beautiful ceremony at Prithvi Theatre.
A photo taken then with his beaming heroines surrounding him appeared everywhere. It is rare in the film industry, rife as it is with ego hassles, intense rivalries and cut-throat politics, that nobody has one word to say against Shashi Kapoor. He was a star and a gentleman, and the industry broke that mould after Shashi Kapoor. It was wonderful to see the respect, affection and admiration he commanded, even though he retired from the movies years ago and did not socialise with industry folk. He refused to attend awards functions and turned down other offers for lifetime achievement trophies.
He always preferred to sit in his favourite seat at his beloved Prithvi Café and interact casually with people who came to watch plays. The regulars were used to his presence, and they would greet him and go on, but it would be amusing to see a first timer or out-of-towner see a star like him this close. He smiled, shook hands and let them take pictures with him. Even when he became frailer by the day, and unable to speak, that sunshine smile and kindly expression remain intact.
Journalists who covered the film beat when he was at his peak, would vouch for his pleasant and considerate behaviour, a total contrast to some of his swollen-headed, tantrum-throwing contemporaries. His directors were impressed by his professionalism — even in the days when he did multiple shifts and was called “taxi” by his brother Raj Kapoor (the only film in which he directed his kid brother as a hero was Satyam Shivam Sundaram in 1978); his co-stars loved him, and, of course, audiences flipped for his impossibly good looks that often overshadowed his talent.
Shashi Kapoor, was born Balbir Raj Kapoor on March 18, 1938 in Kolkata to the Prithviraj and Ramsarni ‘Rama’ Kapoor — his father being the legendary stage and film star. He was the youngest, after Raj and Shammi Kapoor, all of whom went on to become great film stars, and Raj one of the country’s foremost directors. Prithviraj Kapoor ran a theatre repertory called Prithvi Theatres and Shashi grew up in the quiet, green suburb of Matunga in Mumbai, amidst the din, chaos and excitement of rehearsals. From the age of four, he started appearing in his father’s plays. When he was older, he served as stage manager, production manager, costume and light designer, and, eventually actor. He also acted as a child star in films like Aag (1948) and Awaara (1951), in which he played a young Raj Kapoor. But his father had made it clear that his sons had to make it in the industry on their own, he would not launch them.
It was the egalitarian upbringing his father insisted on, treating his family no different from members of his troupe that gave Shashi Kapoor his discipline, easygoing temperament and love of theatre. Being the youngest, he stayed with the repertory long after his brothers moved to films, and perhaps imbibed the most of his father’s influence. The Prithvi Theatres team travelled third class, and ate simple meals. Prithviraj Kapoor told his sons that they were “mazdoors, not jagirdars.”
It’s hard to believe that a man so handsome and belonging to a show business family, was actually shy. How he met his wife to be, Jennifer Kendal, makes for a sweet love story. She also belonged to a theatre family — her parents Geoffrey and Laura Kendal ran a travelling theatre company called Shakespearana. The two groups happened to be in Calcutta at the same time in 1956. Prithvi Theatres’ run had been extended at the Empire Theatre, and some members of Shakespearana came to watch their play. Shashi peered out of the curtain to have a look at the audience and saw the beautiful Jennifer in the audience. It was love at first sight.
However, it wasn’t until he returned to Mumbai that she returned his interest and after a brief courtship, they got married in 1958, against the wishes of Geoffrey Kendal, who thought his daughter would leave the group; instead, Shashi joined Shakespearana as a leading man. They married in a simple ceremony in Mumbai, which his parents insisted on, since Shammi and Geeta Bali had got married suddenly, without family present; Prithviraj Kapoor had taken time off from the shooting of Mughal-E-Azam to attend the wedding. A year later, Shashi and Jennifer’s son Kunal was born, and later, Karan and Sanjna.
After working as an assistant director in films like Post Box 999, Guest House, Dulha Dulhan and Shriman Satyawadi, Shashi Kapoor reluctantly gave up theatre to make his way into films as his family was growing. He debuted as leading man in Yash Chopra’s Dharmputra in 1961. The actor who would go on to become a romantic heartthrob, played a Hindu militant in the film, who does not know that he was adopted from Muslim parents. In spite of the failure of this film, and the few that followed, like Prem Patra and Char Diwari, he acted in over 150 films in a long and successful career.
He was one of the first few Indian actors to star in English films, made by the Merchant-Ivory team of producer and director, with whom he did films like The Householder, Shakespearewallah and Heat And Dust. Waqt (1964) was a multi-starrer hit, but his first major solo hit was Jab Jab Phool Khile (1965), in which he played a simple Kashmiri boatman, opposite Nanda, with whom he formed a popular screen pair and did films like Neend Hamari Khwab Tumhare (1966), Raja Saab (1969) and Rootha Na Karo (1970). His other famous leading ladies include Asha Parekh, Sharmila Tagore (with whom he did 12 films), Rakhee, Hema Malini, Rekha, and Zeenat Aman.
In the 1960s, he did popular films like Pyar Kiye Jaa, Aamne Samne, Haseena Maan Jayegi, Pyar Ka Mausam, Abhinetri — playing a variety of romantic leading men. His success continued into the early ’70s with a list of hits — Sharmilee, Aa Gale Lag Ja, and the international film Siddhartha based on Herman Hesse cult novel, in which he played a young man searching for the meaning of life. This period was dominated by the superstardom of Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan, still Shashi Kapoor held his own giving hits like Chor Machaye Shor and Chori Mera Kaam, but many of his solo hits started flopping, so he had the foresight (and a lack of ego) to start doing parallel leads in hits like Roti Kapda Aur Makaan, Kabhi Kabhie, Trishul and the superhit Deewar (1975) in which he played a cop and spoke Hindi cinema’s most memorable line, “Mere paas maa hai.” He won the Filmfare best supporting actor for this one, and did a record 11 films with Amitabh Bachchan.
Around this time, he and his wife Jennifer started dreaming of, and planning to build, a theatre in Mumbai, as a tribute to Prithviraj Kapoor. His father had always wanted his travelling repertory to have a home. When he shut down Prithvi Theatres due to ill health, he bought two small plots in the beachside suburb of Juhu, one of which was used as a godown and the other called the Prithvi Jhopda in which he lived.
Shashi Kapoor worked multiple shifts in films to raise money to build Prithvi Theatre, which was inaugurated on November 5, 1978 (two days after his father’s birth anniversary, due to a last-minute glitch). Even Shashi could not have imagined the impact it had on the city’s theatre scene, which bloomed on getting such a well-managed and welcoming space. Today, 39 years later, Prithvi Theatre remains Mumbai’s prime cultural landmark, that has encouraged and nurtured talent over the years, and continues to do so.
In 1984, a few years after successfully running Prithvi Theatre and earning the love and lifelong gratitude of the country’s theatre community, Jennifer Kapoor passed away, leaving her dream in the hands of Kunal and Sanjna who took it forward brilliantly. Perhaps tired of the mindless commercial films he was forced to do, work that did not match with his mindset (he was well-read and well-travelled), Shashi Kapoor set up his own production company Prithvi Valas and produced Junoon (1978), directed by Shyam Benegal. The film, based on a Ruskin Bond story, had him playing an impassioned Pathan who falls in love with a British girl, during the 1857 Mutiny, which earns the wrath of his own people. His company produced some great films like Kalyug (1980), 36 Chowringhee Lane (1981), Vijeta (1982), Utsav (1984) and Ajooba (1991), the only film he also directed. Unfortunately, all of them flopped and put him into a financial mess. Nobody heard him complain of his huge losses, all praised his generosity as a producer.
His career as a leading man also started tapering off, though good films like Kala Pathhar, Silsila, Basera, Namak Halal did come his way. He started putting on weight, which the Kapoor men were genetically predisposed to, and soon shifted to doing character roles. After such a glittering career, he was finally given his due as an actor, winning the National Award in New Delhi Times (1986), for the role of an idealistic journalist, who is disillusioned by the rising political corruption in which the media is involved. After this, the roles he got were the usual father, uncle and police commissioner type that are earmarked for stars who can no longer do romance or action; still he excelled in international films like Sammy And Rosie Get Laid, The Deceivers and in old friend Ismail Merchant’s In Custody, in which he played an old, world-weary poet. The last few films he did, Jinnah and Side Streets (1998) were also abroad. After this, he decided to retire and was never tempted to make a comeback. He devoted his time to Prithvi Theatre and to his three grandchildren (Kunal has two children and Sanjna has one.)
Along with the many awards he won for his work as actor and producer, in 2011, he was honoured with the Padma Bhushan by the Government Of India for his contribution to cinema. However his contribution to theatre is equally significant.
That seat in his beloved theatre and the spot in the throbbing-with-life cafe will remain empty...but he will always be there in spirit.
(Deepa Gahlot is a film and theatre critic, script writer and has co-authored the book The Prithviwallahs with Shashi Kapoor)
