Oops ! I goofed up. Sandeep Bamzai is Kaveree Bamzai’s brother and not her husband. Her husband is Sourish Bhattacharyya and has been for the last 16 years. He is a journalist also and Kaveree is spelt Kaveree and not Kaveri. My apologies for this error ! Sandeep too has emailed on this ‘boo boo’ and informed me that Kaveree is his younger sister and followed him into journalism but kept her maiden name after marriage. Sandeep is married to Anuradha for the last 20 years.

I wait desperately for BigAdda to load the song promo of ‘Aladin’ and the delay in posting today is because of that. A large file has problems with the server and the technical team is presently looking into it. I do hope it comes on.

The song is ‘Make a Wish’, composed by music directors Vishal & Shekhar and sung by yours truly and a host of young female singers. Sujoy Ghosh, Director and Producer had conceptualized a more organic version for the film, but V&S aided and abetted by Genius bamboozled the ‘bong’ into having a rethink, and on one very inspired evening that went to an inspiring dawn, we sat ourselves down in the freshly designed and acoustically perfected studio of this young duo and invented ‘make a wish’ !!

Creating music is such a joy.. particularly when you have the ’su’ of such, joining up with the ‘joy’, amidst you. Sujoy has a great sense of music. Testimony - Jhankaar Beats ! But translating that into the sensibilities of the three of us remaining candidates in the studio becomes an exercise. Convincing this ’shock laga’ hairstyled ‘bhadralok’ was a composition by itself. But by 6 am when we were parked in the driveway of the Taj Lands End driveway, sipping hot chocolate and listening to the mix .. I think we had a song !!

Just had word from the server, its not going to be possible to put it up tonight… so we shall try in the ‘morrow.. but fan base in Russia has just called in to say they have seen it on the net and are freaking out !! TAVARISHE NAZDAROVIA !!!

For many, yesterday’s post and the interview was boring. Many felt the post was too long and there were some repeated requests to tell them more about their favorite, Shashi Kapoor.

Shashi ji, son of the great patriarch of the family PrithviRaj Kapoor, a legend in the annals of Indian Cinema and theatre and brother to two other greats, Raj Kapoor and Shammi Kapoor, was a constant companion of mine in several films that we did together. The families were known to each other because of my Father and Prithvi Raj ji’s friendship ; both admirers of each others works - one for his stage the other for his poetry. When Prithvi Theatres toured India and came to Allahabad, we would get to see not just the most inspirational plays of the doyen, but also witnessed the long poetry sessions of my Father, that were conducted each night when the play would finish.

Before landing up in Mumbai for a job as an actor, my association indirectly had taken place with Shashi ji, through his father-in-law, Mr Geoffrey Kendall. Mr Kendall ran a theatre group called Shakespeareana and they would tour India too. Jennifer Kendall was his elder daughter, a part of the troupe and who married Shashi ji, when he joined the troupe as an artist. Felicity Kendall was his younger daughter, a prominent artist in several Hollywood films and a major force on the London stage. Mr Kendall with his Shakespeareana had visited Sherwood College in Nainital with his plays and during one of his visits initiated the Kendall Cup for Dramatics to be presented to the best actor of the year. In my second year in Sherwood, I won the best actor cup for the play ‘Government Inspector’ by Nikolai Gogol the great Russian playwright.

In Mumbai Shashi ji had always been a great support. I would visit him on set when I was looking for a job, he already being an established star by then, and he would introduce me to all his directors. He never worked on Sundays and would spend the day with his two sons and daughter by the swimming pool, at the newly opened Sun n Sand Hotel in Juhu, then the only Hotel in the region. We, knowing of this activity of his would land up via the beach near the Hotel to see him, going in by the main entrance was impossible for us, and waited anxiously for him to notice us so we could spend some time with him.

Very shortly he was working in the James Ivory - Ismail Merchant Production of the film ‘ Filmvalas’ and we approached him if we could get a job in this production. Ismail Merchant the producer of the film called us one fine day and said there some small parts which we could do and that he would pay us Rs 500/- for it. There were three parts available and Anwar Ali, Mehmood bhai’s brother who had become a close friend and who had worked with me as one of the 7 Indians in ‘Saat Hindustani’, and Jajal Agha, son of another great comedian in film, Agha, were the other two along with me that were given these parts. I needed the money so desperately to feed myself, I readily agreed. We shot a funny little episode in a studio for a day, but were later told that it was not going to be used in the film as the story did not require it. It did not matter to me that the scene was removed from the script. We had been paid our salary and were quite happy with it. Some days later production called again to say that we were required for another scene and to report at Lands End in Bandra. There were no Hotels built there then. Sea Rock was being conceptualized and of course Taj Lands End was not even thought of.

The scene that morning was of Shash ji’s death, where his body was being taken in procession to the burning pier for cremation. I was asked to be among those that formed the pall bearers along with several other junior artists in the sequence, to carry the body. After a couple of shots we were asked to stand amongst the crowd as mourners as the shooting progressed. Shashi ji was not at the shoot, obviously, but dropped by later at the location. When he saw what we had been asked to do, he walked up to me in the crowd of mourners where I was standing as a junior artist, or the ‘extra’ and asked me to move. ‘Don’t do these bit parts’ he advised, ‘you are made for better things’ and then spoke to the director to delete those portions of mine from the film.

And one fine day at the first shot for the film ‘Deewar’ at Raj Kamal Studio, I stood along with him for the keepsake photograph after the ‘mahurat’, with him playing my younger brother. I had travelled from being an ‘extra’ in Shashi Kapoor’s film to playing a prominent role along him. At the premier of ‘Deewar’ in 1975 I drove with my parents and family via Marine Drive to the Minerva Cinema. Zanjeer had released. Right from the turning off Marine Drive to Minerva the crowds of people ran along with the car, thumping the glass panes and the body of my newly acquired navy blue Mercedes, a moment I would or could never have dreamed of. When I reached the Minerva and got off, I could not hear anything beyond that massive roar from a sea of humanity that had occupied every vantage point in and around the cinema. I could not see any buildings or roads or doors or facades, nothing. There were just screaming humans around and I have no idea how I was brought inside the hall and seated.

The film started and Shashi ji was beside me in the next seat. We never said a word. Premier butterflies. But when the scene under the bridge started, the ‘mere pass maa hai’ moment, I felt a gentle hand on mine. It was Shashi ji’s. He never spoke, but the way he held my hand said everything. It was reassurance, it was affection, it was acknowledgement, it was complimentary, it was appreciation .. it was everything that a struggling actor that had once played an ‘extra’ in a film that starred this gentleman sitting next to me, had never ever dreamt would happen.

At the after premier dinner, we all assembled at the Copper Chimney in Worli. I was among the first to arrive at the restaurant. There was no one around. Jaya and my parents had gone home, Shweta was in her first year and needed attention. I moved about anxious and apprehensive at how the film would be taken. People started trickling in but no one came up to me. They all stood at a distance and stared. Head down I fiddled with my shoes, the edge of the tables and with the crockery nervously.

Until in the dim light walked in the editor of all of Yash Chopra’s films. He came up to me, thumped me on the shoulder and in his Punjabi said -

‘Bachche… tu star ban gaya vey !!”

Shashi Kapoor and I became inseparables in many successful ventures that followed. Leading ladies would shy away from our projects by proclaiming that there would be nothing left for them to do once SK and AB were there together. He directed his first film with me. He became my relative when Shweta married Raj Kapoor’s grandson.

But forever he remained that same cultured, well meaning, soft spoken, fun loving colleague of mine. After his wife Jennifer’s death he became distraught. He has let himself go and closed himself up almost as a recluse. He barely acknowledges an invitation to come over. He is reticent to meet anyone. He will dutifully call on birthdays and hurriedly disappear after the greetings are over. And he will be untraceable on his own birthday.

When I was in college I had come across a picture of his, published in a film magazine. There he stood, a young and most incredibly handsome man, stubble on his face, looking away, a hand carelessly caressing a cream colored Sports Mercedes convertible, a gift to him I came to know later by his brother Raj ji. When I remember him today I only remember him from that most impressive photograph of his. He has I believe lost his closest friend and childhood companion, Tiger recently and lives in great remorse. He has built Prithvi Theatres at Juhu, in memory of his legendary Father and is very proud of it. His daughter Sanjana, runs it most impressively for him. He visits the theatre on occasion, but has been inaccessible otherwise.

His elder son Kunal who is in advertising recently directed and produced an add., film with me for Binani Cement, who’s brand ambassador I am. On set learning the ropes was Kunal’s son and Shashi ji’s grandson as an assistant.

What a lot of time has gone by !!

Amitabh Bachchan