Ghulam Ali traces Mohammed Rafi's musical journey on screen

The first look of the documentary was unveiled on Rafi's death anniversary

The life of the renowned Bollywood music composer Mohammed Rafi was a fusion of many colourful and dark moments.

Rafi witnessed the golden era of Indian cinema first-hand. Soon you’ll get to know him personally. Documentary filmmaker and producer Rajni Acharya is gearing up to release a documentary on Rafi titled Daastan-e-Rafi, Mumbai Mirror reports. The documentary promises to lift the lid on the legend's life, partly based on Sujata Dev's book Mohammed Rafi: Golden Voice of the Silver Screen.



Speaking about the process he went through to create the documentary, Acharya said, "I got in touch with Rafi sahab's son, Shahid, first, and eventually spoke to all seven of his children who readily came on board. We began filming in Karachi and Lahore, and also shot in Kotla Sultan Singh, Rafi's birthplace in Punjab. I ended up with 200-hours of footage, but something was still missing."

Subsequently he roped in the Pakistani ghazal singer Ghulam Ali, who belongs to the same Patiala gharana, as the narrator. The filmmaker revealed Ali agreed to the role after an eight-month struggle.

"There were issues, especially after his tours in Mumbai, Pune and Delhi were cancelled. Ghulam Ali saab was supposed to perform in Gujarat last Wednesday but he was not allowed there either. I knew he was in India but only 10-15 people knew his whereabouts and he did not wish to communicate with me," he said.



With a docu feature-like approach, the film also has real life footage of Khayyam, Shamshad Begum, Shammi Kapoor, Pandit Jasraj and Ravindra Jain. The first look of the documentary was unveiled on July 31 -- Rafi's death anniversary.

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