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Kamal Amrohi was married with children when he secretly had an affair with actor Meena Kumari. While his wife lived in their home town of Amroha, he worked in Mumbai, climbing up the ladder of fame and success in the Hindi film industry. It was Ashok Kumar who introduced him to Meena Kumari, whom he fell in love with and married when she was just 18, and he was 34. His first wife found out about it via the press, but didn’t speak about it with their daughter Rukhsar, who addressed the difficult situation in a 2019 interview with News18 Urdu.
Rukhsar said that she was around 10 when she felt that children at school were looking at her differently. She learned later that it was because her father had secretly married Meena Kumari in Mumbai, and that the news had been carried in magazines. She returned home, and saw her mother reading the same news, and hurled it away when she noticed Rukhsar. They didn’t speak of it, although some time later, Rukhsar asked her mother why she was so upset. “He has forgotten us, why don’t you forget him as well?” she asked her mother, who scolded her. “Never speak about your father that way again.”
Also read – Meena Kumari: India’s tragedy queen who died penniless at 38, was lost to alcohol and heartbreak
However, Rukhsar’s mother remained upset. She encouraged her to write letters to her father in Mumbai, which was when he introduced her to Meena Kumari, and asked that she be addressed as ‘chhoti ammi’. They started a correspondence, and the family accepted Meena Kumari as well. However, her mother still hadn’t met Kamal Amrohi face to face, and decided to take her along to Mumbai to pay him a surprise visit. They showed up at his house, and Rukhsar remembered how panic-stricken he looked. “I still remember sweat dripping from his brow; he had no idea what to do. He asked why my mother had shown up without informing him, and told her that he had become too busy with Pakeezah to pay us a visit,” she said.
Rukhsar’s mother assured Kamal Amrohi that she hadn’t come to make a scene, but was concerned about Meena Kumari, as she had recently undergone a medical emergency. This was when Kamal Amrohi felt it was safe to introduce the two women. Rukhsar’s mother told her to wash her face before greeting Meena Kumari, who met her warmly as she emerged from her room. The two women met cordially. “She gave my mother a salaam, and this was their first-ever meeting. She gave me a kiss on the forehead. A little while later, after we had had breakfast, my mother took out Rs 250 from her purse and handed it to chhoti ammi. She told her to distribute it among the servants. Chhoti ammi said, ‘But the house is yours, as are the servants’.”
The next day, Meena Kumari praised Rukhsar’s mother’s watch, and immediately had it presented to her as a gift. “She took off her watch and put it on chhoti ammi’s wrist. She said, ‘Tum pehno, mere se chhoti ho‘. Chhoti ammi said ,’Yeh aap kya kar rahi hain, sab kuch toh de diya aapne‘.” Rukhsar remembered that both women had tears in their eyes. Her mother told Meena Kumar, “Tumse mere sartaj mohabbat karte hain Meena, aur jisko piya chahe wohi suhagan kehlaye. Tum unki jaan ho, aur humari jaan woh hain. Jisse woh pyaar karte hain humein bhi karna chahiye (My husband loves you, and we must love whoever he loves, because we love him).”
Meena Kumari died due to a liver ailment after taking to alcohol. She was in her 30s. Her love story with Kamal Amrohi was turbulent, and had a negative impact on her health and psyche. Kamal Amrohi died at the age of 75 in 1993.
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