Hello!
1)What is the relationship between a multirate filter, polyphase filter & FIR filter?
My understanding is filters are used to suppress aliasing in decimators. Nonrecursive nature of FIR filters can significantly improve the overall efficiency of FIR decimators.
This chapter (https://ccrma.stanford.edu/~jos/sasp/Multirate_Filter_Banks.html) probably contains the answers to your question (although I think it's worth to read through the entire book).
Thanks alexeysp