Actor Ali Fazal is popular for his versatility on screen, but on Friday, fans got to see a deeply emotional and introspective side of him, because in a rare Instagram post, the ‘Fukrey’ star took a pause from the usual scroll of celebrity content to share something deeply personal — a throwback photo and a touching tribute to his late mother.

The picture is simple yet powerful: a young Ali sitting snugly on his mother’s lap, their bond evident even in stillness.

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But it’s the caption that truly grabs you — a poetic, almost stream-of-consciousness message that speaks to love, grief, and the strange ways in which memory and time play tricks on us.

Ali Fazal on his mother:

 

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A post shared by ali fazal (@alifazal9)

“Miss you today. Miss you hard,” Ali begins, opening the floodgates to a whirlwind of emotion. He admits he doesn’t like posting much these days, but sometimes, a version of himself feels the urge to share.

What follows is a reflective, philosophical, and uniquely Ali Fazal take on memory and mourning.

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“I wish I had made videos with you,” he writes, questioning whether it’s selfish to want more tangible memories. He dives into the complexities of how our minds try to layer new moments over old ones, as if time is trying to overwrite what once was.

“Why does a memory and its freshness get tied to the linearity of time?” he muses, before cheekily exclaiming, “Time maketh old. Ta daaaaa!”

But Ali doesn’t stop there. He meanders through thoughts of parallax and “whizzing” trees seen from a moving train — using the metaphor to describe how some things may rush by, but their essence stays with us.

He even pokes fun at himself for using the word “whiz” so much, joking about sounding like he needs therapy — but making it clear that his thoughts, while layered and abstract, are in real emotion.

“Now imagine someone tangible turning into whiz. Not a bad deal if you ask me,” he writes, pointing to how the people we love — once they go — become a kind of energy, a presence that lingers even as time marches forward.

Ali’s mother passed away in June 2020 due to health issues, and he has occasionally opened up about the impact of that loss.