I am a stranger here, I am what I am. RIP Shashi Kapoor

And, there lived one and only Shashi Kapoor. (Photo credit: Twitter)

Unlike his more illustrious elder brother and more popular co-artists like Amitabh Bachchan, Shashi Kapoor did not own an era of Hindi film industry. Yet, he surpassed many of his generation and generations after him in many respects.

Born - barely a month after Subhas Chandra Bose brought a new energy in the Indian freedom movement when he got elected as Congress president at Haripura session- on March 18, 1938, Shashi Kapoor brought freshness in Hindi cinema with his carefree gait, relaxed dialogue delivery, effortless acting and mesmerising smile.

He was the youngest of the sons of Prithviraj Kapoor, the legendary theatre personality. His mother Ramsarni Kapoor named him Shashi, thus unknowingly created father-son pair of Earth (Prithvi) and Moon (Shashi). 

Defying the laws of gravity and nature as explained by greats like Newton and Einstein, romantic poets dream of an unseen love between the moon and the earth. That unseen love was the glue that bound Shashi to Prithvi.

It was Shashi Kapoor and not his elder brothers Raj and Shammi, who would fulfill Prithviraj's dream after he was done in by illness. Shashi was fiercely involved with the theatre group of Prithviraj Kapoor. 

Started in 1942, the Prithvi Theatre was a moving troupe of artists which Prithviraj wished to station at some place. Shashi Kapoor realised his father's dream in 1978 when Prithvi Theatre opened at Juhu in Mumbai, six years after Prithviraj's death.

Like many Kapoors, Shashi too began acting in films as a child artist. The most memorable of performances of Shashiraj (as Shashi Kapoor was cast as child actor to avoid confusion with another child actor named Shashi) include that in Aag, a film exploring a man's love for theatre since childhood. This was also the first film in which Raj Kapoor and Nargis appeared together. 

Shashi Kapoor played the child, Kewal, who was madly in love with theatre and Nirmala. The story, in flashback, resembles the story of Shashi Kapoor, who loved only acting/theatres and Jennifer Kendal. No other vice in life.

At the age of 23, having already assisted directors in a few films including Sunil Dutt's debut movie Post Box 999, Shashi Kapoor made his entry to Hindi films as Dharmaputra. Soon, he would go international with English films like The Householder and Shakespeare Wallah.

But, when India and Pakistan fought over land and in skies in 1965, Shashi Kapoor returned with Jab Jab Phool Khile to remove the gloom that the war brought to the country. It was the time, when India faced severe food crisis. 

Only a year later, India would agree to humiliating terms of the US for import of foodgrains before green revolution came calling. At that time, with over half-a-dozen melodies, Shashi Kapoor, paring with Nanda, gave romantic solace to the distraught commoner on the street. 

Shashi Kapoor would go on to act in more than 100 films after that and give memorable performances in Neend Hamari Khwab Tumhare, Sharmilee, Trishna, Aa Gale Lag Ja, Satyam Shivam Sundaram, Chor Machaye Shor and lot more. 

He teamed up with Amitabh Bachchan to give hits like Kabhie Kabhie, make Deewar memorable with dialogues like Mere Paas Maa Hai, leave audiences in bursts of laughter in Do Aur Do Paanch and do a balancing act in Kala Patthar emerging as the only bright character in a film that portrayed dark shades of coal business.

Despite all hits and critical acclaim, there is one song from Jab Jab Phool Khile that defines Shashi Kapoor; he effortlessly screenplayed the melody as a Kashmiri boy to caress the strings of emotion in every Indian: Yahaan Main Ajnabee Hoon, Main Jo Hoon Bas Wahi Hoon (I am a stranger here, I am what I am). That stranger is now back in his own country.

(An edited version of this write up was published by the India Today Movies earlier today)