When I first stumbled upon a short reel titled “I Googled my grandfather and discovered he is an icon”, I paused. Like millions of Indians and South Asians, I have grown up with Mohammed Rafi’s voice as the backdrop to my life — busy mornings, family car rides, and solitary evenings when his songs were a kind of refuge, including this week when I was holed up at home because of the torrential rains in the city. Moved, I did what any Rafi admirer would do, I wrote a message to the young man who posted the reel, introducing myself as a fan reaching out to another.

To my surprise, he replied, and turned out to be Ali Rafi — London-based filmmaker and the grandson of the legend himself. A Zoom conversation followed, his very first interview about a deeply personal project: a six-part series on his grandfather’s life and legacy.

Ali (centre) with parents and siblings