"She had met in Shashi the man she wanted forever."
When Shashi Kapoor, backstage, peeked through the curtains and saw a girl dressed in a 'black-and-white polka-dotted dress with a halter neckline', little did he know that she would change his life in ways unimaginable. Or maybe he did. Because he fell instantly in love with Jennifer Kendal, daughter of Shakespearana's Goeffrey Kendal and remained devoted to his beloved wife till the day he died.
It was the Royal Opera House in Mumbai, Bombay then, that saw the beginning of Shashi and Jennifer's love story. That was the account that Jennifer's sister, Felicity Kendal, narrates in her autobiography, White Cargo.
Jennifer and Felicity's father Geoffrey stuck to a somewhat different version of this moment that went on to change both Shashi and Jennifer's lives, forever.
According to The Shakespeare-wallah, Geoffrey Kendal's autobiography, the incident took place in the Empire House in Kolkata (Calcutta back then). The management company of Empire House ended up giving the same date to both Shakespearana and Prithvi, the theatre companies. The two companies finally reached a truce: they will perform on alternate days. It was here that Shashi first saw Jennifer, says Geoffrey's account.
Shashi Kapoor went on to talk to Jennifer and then took her backstage. By the next afternoon, they had fallen in love, if Felicity's autobiography is to go by.
When Geoffrey's Shakespearana fell short of actors, he asked Prithviraj Kapoor to 'loan' Shashi for some time. It was in these five months that Jennifer coached him in toothsome phrases and words from Shakespeare and George Bernard Shaw, English playwrights that Kapoor did not have any experience of performing at Prithvi Theatre. The Indian actor was accepted by Geoffrey, but the latter was not interested in letting him marry his daughter. In his attempts to push Shashi Kapoor away from his daughter, the protective father was often nasty with Kapoor. He chastised him for his accent and fought with him over Jennifer.
But that could not keep Shashi and Jennifer apart.
Their daughter Sanjana was quoted by Aseem Chhabra, who wrote a biography of Shashi Kapoor, "When they were doing theatre (Shashi and Jennifer), they were poor. They were under-slept and underfed and my father would tell me how they would be tormented by hunger while strolling down the streets-both my parents trying to decide if they could get half a paratha. Then, they would walk past a restaurant and there would be my grandfather, Geoffrey Kendal, having a huge meal with a beer. My father couldn't walk in. He was his employee and he was also stealing his daughter. So there was no way he could march into the storm."
After Jennifer decided to confront her father, Geoffrey told her that he did not want them to leave Shakespearana, his theatre company.
Shashi and Jennifer's relationship saw massive support from his sister-in-law, actress Geeta Bali, and his brother, Shammi Kapoor. The two got to know of Shashi and Jennifer's affair and backed them.