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Director Kamal Amrohi shared a complicated relationship with actress Meena Kumari. Though he was already married with children, Kamal began an affair with Meena in Mumbai, while his wife lived in their hometown, Amroha. The two eventually married when Meena was just 18 and Amrohi was 34. In a 2019 interview, Rukhsar Amrohi, Kamal’s daughter from his first marriage, opened up about her father’s relationship and eventual separation from Meena.
During a conversation with News18 Urdu, Rukhsar expressed that her mother and Meena Kumari were very different from each other. “My father said that I respect your mother a lot. The face of a woman or a mehbooba he believed was romantic and glamorous. My father was a writer and a poet, and his ideal was Meena ji. Chotti ammi (Meena Kumari) mein paaya vo unhone. Our entire family accepted that she used to look like a poet’s lover. She also had it in her. She used to write beautiful lines on love. My mother grew up in a different environment,” she said.
When asked about the allegations of torture against her father Kamal Amrohi, Rukhsar Amrohi replied, “She (Meena Kumari) didn’t say that. This was said by those enemies who couldn’t see two people in love. We live in a society which cannot bear someone else’s happiness. Some people wanted her to work with them, but my father used to draw a line at some places.”
She added, “He wanted her to come home on time. He also told her that the makeup room door shouldn’t be shut for long. He had put 3-4 conditions, including that if you are leaving your car and sitting in someone else’s car then come home in that car only, and don’t sit in your car again on the way. If the reporters see that, they can make up any story. Meena ji was instigated against my father a lot. He was only writing, couldn’t share it with anyone.”
However, the situation turned ugly when Meena Kumar called Kamal Amrohi to Filmistan studio and he refused to come. “She suddenly walked out in 1964 from Filmistan studio. She went with Mehboob to his house. She called my father to the studio but he didn’t go because she knew Meena was angry, it would create a mess. He went at Mehboob’s house at night to convince her, but she didn’t come back,” Rukhsar revealed.
“He didn’t go to get her again and she didn’t come back on her own. After her anger dialed down, she sent a letter in which she requested him not to divorce her, no matter what happened. Both of them had sworn to take care of each other,” she concluded.
Meena Kumari passed away at 38 from liver disease caused by prolonged alcohol consumption. Kamal Amrohi died in 1993, at the age of 75.
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