I’m at a book launch and in the middle of the event my What’sUp reads: Shashi Kapoor no more.
I knew he was in the hospital… I knew he was not doing well, his daughter Sanjana Kapoor had discussed he was deteriorating but I was hoping he would fight back and return home. He didn’t.
As I rush out of the venue waiting for my car, I discover it is thundering and raining heavily. There is no reason for this sudden climate change and I wonder if it is nature’s way of displaying anxiety over Shashiji’s exit.
It is a dark stormy evening and as I drive home, my mind wanders to the first time I met Shashi Kapoor way back in the 70s. I had called his home to fix an appointment for an interview and he asked me to come over the following morning to Famous Studio. Still in college and inexperienced I innocently asked ‘Where is that?’ ‘Open the directory young lady and find out for yourself’ was his answer. That was the first lesson I learnt as a journalist. You don’t ask directions, you figure it out yourself.
He gave me a wonderful interview and I kept meeting him again and again chronicling his life and career over the years. He was extremely charming and devastatingly good-looking and female reporters fought with each other to interview him. He was the busiest star in film firmament in the 70s shooting double/ triple shifts a day and conducted all his meeting/ interviews in his car, driving from one studio to another.
Shashi Kapoor has unknowingly been a major influence in my grooming as a journalist. There are many lessons I have learnt from him. Once due to shortage of rooms at a studio he was sharing his makeup room with veteran actor Bharat Bhushan. I had an appointment with him and as soon as I entered his room began chatting with him. He was annoyed that I had not greeted Bhushanji and when I whispered that I had not been officially introduced to him, Kapoor flared up ‘you don’t know Tansen… you don’t know Baiju Bawra why do you presume you need introductions?’ He was right and I apologized. Not satisfied he dragged me to his set holding my hand and made sure I said Namastey to his producer/ director/ writer and the camera man. He said it was rude to not acknowledge the unit and I have remembered that.
He said an actor must always know his lines thoroughly and he always did. He was as meticulous about his dubbings and marked his pauses on the dialogue sheet so he did not make a mistake. He was a master at time management as well and compressed all his meetings/ interviews while travelling from one studio to another. I was with him when he would meet up with foreign architects to supervise plans for Prithvi Theatre at that time an empty space. It was his dream to resurrect his father’s theatre and his wife Jennifer went all out to make Prithvi Theatre the cultural hub it is today.
When Jennifer ill, Shashi Kapoor put everything on hold to be with his wife and when she died, he went into depression and neglected himself. He put on so much weight that he had to eventually stop working. He was not interested in acting any longer and not interested in making films either.
He continued to be attached with Prithvi Theatre fortunately and spent most of his evenings watching a play and later relishing a drink at the café. I always bumped into him every time I visited the theatre and chatted with him about old days. Initially he found it all entertaining but as years went by and he turned frail he appeared more and more disoriented and seldom talked with anybody.
Come November though and Shashi Kapoor was always present at the Prithvi Theatre Festival to light the lamp and declare the festival open. In the later years he did the honors sitting on a wheelchair but the tradition continued. The guests were happy just to see him and it did not matter that he did not recognize them any longer.
Except this November, last month for the first time since the inception of Prithvi Theatre in the late 70s Shashi Kapoor was not present at the inaugural because he was in the hospital. He had in recent times been in and out of the hospital so many times that all of us thought he would somehow recover and come back once again.
He didn’t but the show had to go on and Kunal Kapoor and his children kept the spirit going.
Shashi Kapoor is no more but we will remember him through his films and his legacy of Prithvi Theatre. As long as his children and his grandchildren continue with the tradition their parents believed in, Shashi Kapoor will live with us forever.
Bhawana Somaaya/ @bhawanasomaaya
Ek Rupaiyya is about a little boy, who for a little need steals a one rupee coin, all he wants is a little happiness but heaven falls apart. Writer-director Nitin Bharadwaj taps your conscience and makes you rethink the concept of right and wrong.
Post the performances are the regular speeches and felicitations. Shah Rukh Khan introduces the opening film and Sridevi introduces the Panorama Section.
Government events always begin on time but there is always a moment for memories, as I stand by the poster of IFFI my friends join me and we say cheese, sorry ‘cinema’ to the camera.
As the last item draws to an end and Madhuparna calls all her students to come on stage for a group picture. Her father Kalyan Sen Bharat, a well-known composer associated with many performing arts including cinema, has flown all the way from Kolkatta only to be with his daughter on her special day and to bless all her students.
As more and children rush to the stage and gather for a group picture my mind wanders back to a lazy evening when I accompanied a friend to her class. It was a test class for the senior students and watching me sit aloof in a corner, Kumar suggested I get on to the floor as well. I did for a lark and even though I had no plans to join the group committed to a 4pm class unsure how I was going to be able to make time from my busy and crazy schedule.
Two days a week for six months Kumar worked on our steps, monitored our mudras, corrected our expressions, she watched over our postures, our bends and twirls. Every week, she systematically revised old lessons and never let us free without teaching something new. How to beat the foot on the floor, how to raise the arms, there was so much to absorb and remember. Every time she taught a new step I was sure I would not get it right but she made me do it again and again till I had mastered it and so that I never forget it she taught us how to document step by step in a notebook.
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