It sounds like a plot from a slapstick comedy, but Raju Kher swears it’s the truth. His elder brother, the man who would later become a household name for The Kashmir Files, walked into a temple in Lucknow and walked out a husband—and then out as a single man again the very next day. The entire spectacle lasted roughly 24 hours, a fleeting blip in a life that would eventually take him to the heights of Indian cinema.
Raju, speaking with Siddharth Kannan, painted a picture of a whirlwind romance that collapsed under its own weight. Anupam and Madhumalti had been dating for two or three years, but the spark apparently fizzled out the moment the priest finished the rites. "It ended in one day," Raju said. "They got married at a temple in Lucknow. The next day, he left from there, saying, 'I cannot stay here.'" He didn't fight it. He didn't negotiate. He just packed up, headed to Shimla for a few days, and then disappeared into Delhi, leaving his bride behind.
Here’s the part that still makes Raju laugh in disbelief. No one from the family was there. Zero. Anupam was in Lucknow, Raju was in Shimla, and the rest of the clan had no idea the youngest son had tied the knot. "Nobody from the family was there, so we did not even realise that he had got married," Raju admitted. Imagine the shock if they had walked in the next day expecting a bachelor party.
Raju has always kept his distance from the "why" behind it. He respects his brother’s autonomy too much to pry into the private mess. "Anupam was quite seedha for that time, while Madhu ji was a somewhat strong woman," he noted. "Only they know what happened between them." It’s a stark contrast to Anupam’s later life, where he found stability with Kirron Kher in 1985, after moving to Mumbai and making his debut in Mahesh Bhatt’s Saaransh in 1984. Madhumalti, meanwhile, went on to marry Ranjit Kapoor.
This little anecdote adds a layer of human vulnerability to Anupam’s public persona. We see the actor, the director, the social activist. But this is the guy who once woke up a married man and chose to be single by dinner. It’s a messy, quiet story that doesn’t fit neatly into a film script, but it’s undeniably true.