Bollywood often deemed him the odd one out in his generation. In the commercial Hindi cinema of sixties and seventies, where all-out hamming was regarded as ‘great acting’, Shashi Kapoor could project anger without raising his voice.
In today’s context, the skill would fashionably be termed with the oxymoronic label of ‘realistic acting’. The trait, however, was not the only way in which Kapoor was a trailblazer.
Quietly, without ever gunning for top spot, he did redefine a few rules of the Bollywood game.
Shashi Kapoor with actors Rekha, Shabana Azmi, Supriya Pathak, Zeenat Aman, Asha Parekh and Wahida Rehman after receiving the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in Mumbai in May 2015
With actors Neetu Singh, Karishma Kapoor, Rekha and Ranbir Kapoor
The Kapoor clan reached Kokilaben Hospital in Mumbai where Shashi Kapoor breathed his last on Monday evening. Seen in the picture are actors Randhir and Ranbir Kapoor
Back in the psychedelic seventies, when loud and flashy were hallmarks of everything that made an impact on screen, Kapoor knew how to set up the swagger with understated style.
He was the nice guy to the staple angry young man in sundry multi-starrers, often essayed by Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra or Shatrughan Sinha with aplomb.
That trademark screen image lives on in the mind, whether you loved Shashi Kapoor for his mainstream contribution, his impressive body of arthouse work that went side by side, or the defining forays to the West that he kept making, notably with those unforgettable Merchant-Ivory films.
Kapoor’s understated and charming personality in films cutting across genres is so unique it cannot be replicated. It is the trait that will stay with us forever, long after Kapoor’s death at the age of 79 on Monday.
He passed away on Monday aged 79 after prolonged illness in Kokilaben Hospital, Mumbai, after suffering from various ailments for the past few years.
He will live on through his art. Few actors have balanced stardom with critical honours as Kapoor.
The actor and filmmaker (left) passed away at a Mumbai hospital on Monday, aged 79
He was honoured with the prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2015 for his contribution to the art of cinema.
The trophy was a reiteration of what his Padma Bhushan win in 2011 had already established: Shashi Kapoor was a rare Indian actor and filmmaker who had mastered the art of balancing the Indian mainstream penchant at larger-than-life celebration of life with the finer aesthetics of world cinema.
Through the seventies and eighties, Kapoor became a mandatory part of several multi-starrer superhits – the definitive box-office genre of the day – even as he continued carving his niche in the arthouse gems of Shyam Benegal such as Kalyug and Junoon.
As a producer he crafted some of the finest arthouse films of his time, notably Utsav, 36 Chowringhee Lane and Junoon. His odd foray as a Bollywood director, however, was the fantasy adventure Ajooba, which flopped despite starring Amitabh Bachchan and Rishi Kapoor.
Kapoor’s refined sense of cinema was perhaps shaped by his love for theatre.
Beyond films, he ceaselessly worked at promoting the world of stage with Prithvi Theatre, which he set up in November 1978 along with wife Jennifer.
Theatre, in fact, played an important role in their romance. They met during the years when both were active with theatre work. While Kapoor blazed the Bollywood box-office in his time, working with the top producers and heroines, his career graph was taking a very different complexion in the West.
During the shooting of Satyam Shivam Sundaram, Raj Kapoor started calling brother Shashi Kapoor ‘Taxi’ because the latter always looked like he was ‘running away in taxi’. He is pictured here with brothers Raj and Shammi Kapoor
In many of his English films, particularly the ones directed by Ismail Merchant and James Ivory, Shashi and Jennifer relished enacting an authentic play of emotions and relishing rare chemistry.
Some of Kapoor’s most unforgettable performances have also come in Merchant- Ivory films. These include The Householder, Shakespeare Wallah, Heat And Dust, Bombay Talkie and In Custody.
In Merchant and Ivory’s exalted yet understated storytelling, Kapoor’s restrained acting style seemed to find a perfect platform. The quaint milieu that the filmmaker duo so succinctly set up was just the backdrop Kapoor was looking for, to underline why he will always remain a cut above as an actor.
Kapoor had been ailing for quite some time now and had been on dialysis for several years. He had also undergone bypass surgery and was hospitalised with a chest infection a few years back.
Kapoor leaves behind hisdaughter Sanjana, and sons Kunal and Karan. Plus, of course, a legacy of rich cinematic content and that charming smile that will forever live on with us.