Meena Kumari’s marble tombstone at a Shia cemetery in Mazagaon which was vandalised recently has been restored by her step-daughter.
Yesteryear film star Meena Kumari’s marble tombstone at a Shia cemetery in Mazagaon which was vandalised recently has been restored by her step-daughter Rukhsar Amrohi.
The tombstone had been lying decrepit for some time before Rukhsar asked graveyard attendants to repair it last week.
Meena Kumari, whose real name was Mahjabeen Alibux, had acted in nearly 100 films before dying of a liver disease in March 1972 at the age of 39.
While the actor’s real name is carved in Urdu on the marble, her assumed name in English and Hindi is written in black paint.
Visitors and mourners to the Rehmatabad Cemetery said they were sad to see the damaged tombstone.
“The marble railings on the tomb had been broken. I was distressed to see the broken tomb,” said a mourner who visited the graveyard to attend a relative’s funeral.
Rukhsar, daughter of film director and producer Kamal Amrohi who had married Meena Kumari, had seen the vandalised tomb before going for the Haj pilgrimage last week.
Amrohi who died in 1993 is buried next to Meena Kumari and his other wife, Rukhsar’s mother who died around 30 years ago.
Rukhsar said she looks after the three tombs.
Rukhsar, who called Meena Kumari choti ma, said that she had visited the graves of her parents for ‘Fateha’ prayers before going for Haj.
“I wanted to say good-bye to them. I found that choti ma’s tomb had been damaged. The graveyard attendants said children who were playing around the tomb had damaged it,” said Rukhsar, who manages Kamal Amrohi Studios in Jogeshwari that was set up by her father. “I have just come back from Haj and I am visiting the graveyard on Wednesday to pray and will pay the workers who restored the tomb.”
Sayed Jalal Jalali, trustee of the Bombay Iranian Shia Isha which maintains the cemetery, said: “While we are responsible for looking after the graveyard, the memorials and tombstones are maintained by families of the deceased. The donations given by the family are used only for the regular maintenance of the cemetery, but if the family gives us directions to repair the memorial, we can repair them.”
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