The veteran actor also made his presence felt on the international scene because of his early association with makers like James Ivory and Ismail Merchant with whom he did The Householder, Shakespear Wallah, Heat and Dust.
One of the iconic and oft-repeated Salim-Javed dialogues in Hindi cinema from the film Deewar was delivered by none other than Shashi Kapoor. He's the one who tells his wayward screen brother Amitabh Bachchan 'Mere paas Maa hai.'
And though commercial cinema is what kept his kitchen fires burning, it was not the cinema that defined him.
Besides having a robust career in mainstream movies, Shashi who had innumerable hits in money spinners like Fakira, Haseena Maan Jayegi, Chori Mera Kaam, Deewar, Trishul, Sharmeelee, Basera went on to actually make his mark later on when he lent his equity to path-breaking cinema like Kalyug, 36, Chowringhee Lane and Utsav with award-winning filmmakers like Shyam Benegal, Aparna Sen and Girish Karnad.
Bitten or should we say, smitten as he was by the finer nuances of movie-making, when Shashi had a choice to put up his own banner, he chose to make sensitive fare.
That be as it may, his sense of humour was terrific and he would often recount how his eldest brother, Raj Kapoor had nicknamed him `Taxi.' Explaining it to us, he would guffaw, "My brother is appalled at the number of films I am doing. And he often tells me, Shashi you are like a taxi. You sign a film at every signal.'' That then was Shashi for you. Blunt and brutally honest.
He knew he had to maintain his true-blue lifestyle, so he did a string of commercial films, often accepting two-hero projects like Kabhie Kabhie, Suhaag, Shaan, Do Aur Do Panch and countless such ones with actors like Amitabh Bachchan.
"To some it may have seemed like Shashi uncle was playing second fiddle to Amitabh Bachchan,'' Randhir Kapoor had once said. Adding, "that is not true. Shashi uncle complimented Bachchan and so many other actors with whom he shared screen space in the multi-starrers that he did.''
The veteran actor also made his presence felt on the international scene because of his early association with makers like James Ivory and Ismail Merchant with whom he did The Householder, Shakespear Wallah, Heat and Dust. And he even gave the Indian audience a taste of erotica back in the 70s in Conrad Rooks' Siddhartha, in which he played a young man searching for the true meaning of life. His co-actor Simi Garewal's topless scene in the film had got into censor trouble.
Shashi lost his interest to continue in films when he lost his wife Jennifer Kendal Kapoor in 1984. And he also suffered a huge financial loss when his ambitious directorial venture Ajooba (1991) starring a masked Amitabh Bachchan and Dimple Kapadia proved to be a box office dud.
The crores that he lost on this film made Shashi a partial recluse.
He wrapped up his house in South Mumbai and moved to Janki Kutir in Juhu. Prithvi Theatre became his sole passion. He occupied a house across the theatre and the one annual event he never missed in all these years in the February 28 concert on the premises. The date marked his wife Jennifer's birth anniversary and each year for the last 33 years Ustad Zakir Hussain has been performing a concert here in memory of Jennifer. Whether he was on his feet or in his wheel chair, Shashi has never missed this performance.
The wheel chair stands empty today.
MEMORABLE JOURNEY
BIRTH DETAILS
Shashi Kapoor was born Balbirraj, on March 18, 1938 in Calcutta, West Bengal to Prithviraj Kapoor and Ramsarni (Rama) Devi.
He married Jennifer Kendal, a British actress in 1958 and has three children. Daughter, Sanjana Kapoor and sons Kunal Kapoor & Karan Kapoor. Kendal died of cancer in 1984.
MAJOR ACCOLADES
Shashi Kapoor won many awards [in 2009 he won the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 7th Pune International Film Festival (PIFF)] and some of them were for the Best Actor category.
In 2010, Shashi Kapoor was presented the Lifetime Achievement Award by Filmfare.
In 2011, he was honoured with the Padma Bhushan.
LOVE FOR THEATRE
Shashi Kapoor joined films because Prithvi Theatre, started by his father Prithviraj Kapoor, closed down in 1960.
He is the third person from the Kapoor family to receive the Dadasaheb Phalke honour, after his father Prithvi Raj Kapoor and elder brother Raj Kapoor.
Compiled by DNA – Research N Archives
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