jackofall.blogspot: Shashi kapoor & Jeniffer Kendal

Friday, July 01, 2005

Shashi kapoor & Jeniffer Kendal

Shashi Kapoor is well known as one of the innumerable member of the famous Kapoor family.Like any other kapoor family member he is also remembered for acting in the usual formula movies that came in the 60's and 70's.But there is a different side to this person.He is some one who became a pauper trying to make quality movies.

Shashi kapoor from mid 70's started producing parallel movies.He made some significant movies under the banner film-vala's.He produced Junoon and kalyug with shyam benegal, Vijeta with govind nihlani, Utsav with girish karnad and 36 cowingree lane with aparna sen.

what made him do this.I dont know.But surely jenifer kendal had some part to do with it.Jeniffer was his childhood sweetheart, who he married later.There love story is a sweet one.Read it here

Not only did they produce good movies.They also did a lot for the theater scene in bombay.After his father prithviraj's death in 1971.shashi kapoor built the prithvi theater as a tribute to a his father.

Somewhere in the seventies Shashi and his wife Jennifer decided to build Prithvi Theatre of their own. They were discouraged by many. The land on which they wanted to build the theatre was prime property in Juhu. They could have made crores of rupees selling it. Jennifer (whose entire family, the Kendals were madly dedicated to theatre) who was involved in English theatre) however was determined to build Prithvi Theatre and Shashi inspired her with all the help she needed to help her dream come true. Prithvi Theatre started on a small scale. It then grew and flourished and today it is one of the major landmarks of Mumbai.

At times I wonder what Hindi theatre would do without Prithvi Theatre. I wonder what so many young and talented young men and women from all over the country would do without Privhti Theatre. It is this very Prithvi Theatre which has given so much talent to theatre, films and in very very big way to television. Prithvi is a blessing to the starving for talent Mumbaiwala.

There was a time when Shashi lost interest in Prithvi, especially after he lost his wife Jennifer who was the central pillar of Prithvi Theatre, the woman who looked after Prithvi like her own child. Shashi was stopped from doing such a cruel thing by his son Kunal and daughter Sanjana. Today, both Kunal and Sanjana are taking care of Prithvi Theatre and taking every step to make it a major institution in Mumbai. They have vowed to keep Prithvi Theatre alive which means keeping so many hundreds and thousands of hopes and dreams and inspirations alive.

Thank you, Jennifer

I still remember that memorable evening at Prithvi Theatre. It had just been inaugurated. Not many people knew about it, not even all those who should have. It was Shashi Kapoor and Jennifer Kapoor's gift to Mumbai, it was their house for the talented who had no place to stand in a crowded city like Mumbai and prove their talent. It was their own little way of keeping talent alive, of keeping theatre alive, of keeping young artistes and directors and artistes alive. It was their way of thanking theatre for making them, Shashi and Jennifer and their families what they were.more

Seems,At the start Jennifer sent the architect of the theatre, Ved Segan, to travel around Europe and England to see different kinds of theatres. Meanwhile, the Kendalls brought in their expertise in play-acting, and some talented youngsters — Om Puri, Naseeruddin Shah and Amol Palekar, to name a few — became a part of it.more

The first play was performed on 5 November 1978, The play was G.P. Deshpande's Uddhwasta Dharmashala, directed by Om Puri. Prithvi Theatre, the building has now become a landmark in Mumbai.

There contribution to india's theater scene is now carried out by there childrens.Shashi & Jeniffer had 3 childrens. Sanjana(she used to host shows in Star tv), Kunal(starred in vijeta) & Karan Kapoor(The bombay dyeing man).