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Shashi Kapoor with his co-star from Junoon, Nafisa Ali, on his 78th birthday in March

More than 50 years after mega-hit Jab Jab Phool Khile hit the screens, original 'fan-boy' Khalid Mohamed looks back at a checkered career, and pays tribute to Bollywood's matinee idol - Shashi Kapoor

By Khalid Mohamed

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Published: Fri 20 May 2016, 6:00 PM

Last updated: Fri 27 May 2016, 2:20 PM

Most evenings, at the age of 78, he sits on a wheelchair in a tree-shaded enclave of Prithvi Theatre - founded in the memory of his father Prithviraj Kapoor. He can't speak much but his eyes sparkle on recognising a past friend or acquaintance. Theatre-goers who frequent Prithvi Café offer their salaams and handshakes. They're sensitive enough not to crowd around him, quickly expressing their abiding regard for the actor who rocked the marquee in the 1960s and through the 70s.
Shashi Kapoor has been a class act. A reluctant hero to a degree, because his first love was theatre - although, ultimately, he couldn't ignore the call of movies. His elder brothers Raj Kapoor and Shammi Kapoor were making huge waves in show business. It was but natural that their kid brother should follow the family tradition. For the record, Raj Kapoor had successfully cajoled his baby brother into doing cameos in RK banner's Aag and Awara
Growing up, Shashi was ill at ease as an actor, more at home in James Ivory-Ismail Merchant art-house productions, like The Householder. But when he did
take the plunge into Bombay's mainstream cinema, he had a blast; he was consistently supported by his wife Jennifer Kendal, who would even design his
film costumes, which became fashion trendsetters.
This month, film critic Aseem Chhabra has released an evocative book tracing Shashi Kapoor's journey as a matinee idol as well as the producer of the unconventional  Junoon, 36 Chowringhee Lane, Vijeta and Utsav, directed by Shyam Benegal, Aparna Sen, Govind Nihalani and Girish Karnad respectively. None of these may have fetched back their financial investment, but are remembered fondly by the cognoscenti. 
The star actor's foray into direction with Ajooba, an Arabian Nights-style fantasy, however, turned out to be a downer, leading to debts, besides an irrevocable sense of disillusionment. Shashi Kapoor wasn't the same again, compounded by the passing of his wife following a terminal
illness. The Adonis of the Indian screen appeared to have discarded his lust for life and the creative arts. Gratifyingly, despite the monetary odds, Prithvi Theatre has had to face over the decades, his daughter Sanjana and son Kunal have strived to keep it more than alive and kicking. Not an easy task, that.

Shashi Kapoor in a scene from Jab Jab Phool Khile 
On a personal note, as a schoolboy, I became the actor's fan-boy for a lifetime after watching Jab Jab Phool Khile, which released 50 years ago. As a Kashmiri boatman who falls in love with a well-heeled, big city girl - played charmingly by Nanda - here was an entertainer who stoked the fantasies of the audience. Directed by Suraj Prakash, the film (brilliantly photographed by Taru Dutt) underscored the point that love knows no class barriers. Romantic to the hilt, the storyline also asserted that an underprivileged boatman will not accept humiliation from the moneybags. He'd rather retain his pride than sell his soul.
Nearly three decades later, the film was remade into Raja Hindustani (1996). It was a whopper hit as well, but it wasn't quite in the same league. The lasting appeal of Jab Jab Phool Khile was enhanced by a catchy music score by Kalyanji-Anandji. The songs ranged from the absolutely joyous (Affoo Khudaya, Na Na Karte Pyaar Tumhi Se) and the lilting (Yeh Samaa, Samaa Hai Yeh Pyaar Ka) to the melancholic (Pardesiyon Se Na Ankhiyan Milana, Yahan Main Ajnabee Hoon) - all worded simply but emotionally by lyricist Anand Bakshi.

Aamne Samne established Shashi Kapoor's comfort level with mainstream cinema
Shashi Kapoor, who seemed to have trouble in dealing with populist, sometimes unbelievable, situations in scripts, was singularly inspired in the film. No one could criticise him any more for being "much too westernised". The unexpected success of the brightly packaged Jab Jab Phool Khile established Shashi Kapoor in the Bollywood firmament, erasing the actor's early box-office disappointments like Dharmputra, Char Diwari and Mehndi Lagi Mere Haath. Although they had been paired earlier, with the Kashmir-located love story, the Shashi-Nanda pair became the coolest twosome in show town. 
The actor struck up tremendous screen chemistry with Sharmila Tagore too, in Yash Chopra's Waqt that was also released 50 years ago, followed up by the undervalued whodunit Aamne Samne.
Quite remarkably, the actor straddled the worlds of hyper-commercial Bollywood and intimately-scaled films which sought to reach out to a global audience. In Mumbai, he crossed swords with Amitabh Bachchan in Deewar, felling him softly with the classic line of dialogue, "Mere paas ma hai" (I have my mother with me). Simultaneously, he could preserve his collaboration with Ivory-Merchant movies like Heat and Dust and In Custody. Earlier, of course, he'd been featured in the duo's elegiac Shakespeare Wallah and Bombay Talkie, not to forget his strong presence in Guy Green's Pretty Polly, in the company of the British actress Hayley Mills.

Shashi Kapoor in a scene from Deewar
After the Jab Jab Phool Khile show at Mumbai's Minerva cinema, half a century ago, I'd written Shashi Kapoor a fan letter. He had replied with a hand-written note, plus an autographed photo of him sitting, in a white suit, under a tree. 
Today, he can be seen under a tree of Prithvi Theatre's compound, and he still summons a smile. The white suit has gone, of course. Instead, he wears a kurta pajama, draping his shoulders with a light shawl, come winter.
And this column is the only way I can still write a fan letter to the Jab Jab Phool Khile romantic for all seasons.


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