Their love story had blossomed in 1956, when the 18-year-old Shashi Kapoor, as a member of the Prithvi Theatre Company, had met Jennifer Kendal in Calcutta.

Jennifer was playing Miranda in The Tempest, as part of her father Geoffrey Kendal's Shakespeareana production, and two years later they were married!

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With Jennifer gone, Shashi struggled, but couldn’t find himself. That vast area of his personality that was Jennifer—now it lay empty. A void

While the couple starred in several Merchant Ivory productions, such as Bombay Talkie, their love for theatre is best witnessed in the birth of Prithvi Theatre in Bombay in 1978, a product of their joint passion.

Within six brief years, Kapoor had suffered a blow which he never recovered from – the untimely demise of his beloved Jennifer, who died of terminal colon cancer.

Jennifer’s parents were devastated by the loss. While father Geoffrey could not talk or write about “the appalling loss,” which seemed as if “the whole Land of Promise had frozen,” mother Laura Lidell Kendal “lost her faith…the light went out a bit.” Shashi perhaps suffered the most. Apparently, after Jennifer’s death, the family visited Goa and it was here that he took a boat out to the middle of the sea, where he broke down and wept. Utterly shaken by her death, he was never to recover from her loss.

Without Jennifer’s care and discipline, Shashi overindulged both his weaknesses for food and drink. Locked in a vicious circle of grief and consumption, his health deteriorated rapidly

Shashi Kapoor continued to work after his wife’s passing; in fact, some of his best work emerged during the time of loss. Yet something inside him had broken forever. The love of his life, his true anchor, Jennifer’s death had left him rudderless. “Jennifer occupied—or Shashi surrendered to her—a large part of his personality. And they merged. With Jennifer gone, Shashi struggled, but couldn’t find himself. That vast area of his personality that was Jennifer—now it lay empty. A void. I met him in London over dinner with Ismail Merchant and could see that he was floundering. He was different—not himself,” Simi Garewal remembered.

Close friends like Anil Dharker were witness to his emotional collapse and physical breakdown. Without Jennifer’s care and discipline, he overindulged both his weaknesses for food and drink. Locked in a vicious circle of grief and consumption, his health deteriorated rapidly. Moving from his South Bombay home to Juhu, where he could be taken care of by his son Kunal, he had already retreated into silence.

Shashi Kapoor’s heart stopped beating 33 years after the passing of his beloved Jennifer. But he had stopped living decades ago, in 1984…