If you’re looking for music that tugs gently — and sometimes painfully — at the strings of your heart, Ali Sethi’s Chan Kithan is a hauntingly beautiful place to begin. This soulful reimagining of a classic Punjabi folk song dives deep into themes of love, absence, and aching nostalgia. Originally rooted in the Saraiki dialect, the song’s title translates to “Where is the moon?” or more metaphorically, “My love, my moon, where were you last night?” It captures the anguish of separation — that feeling of lying awake, restless and yearning, wondering where your beloved is and why they are so far away.
Sethi’s 2019 version of Chan Kithan is a musical slow-burn that feels both timeless and strikingly modern. Produced by Saad Sultan, the song is built around a minimal, intimate soundscape: soft dholak beats by Fazal Abbas, ghostly been melodies from Akmal Qadri, harmonium by Shehbaz Ali, and bass and guitar by Sultan himself. Sethi adds his personal touch with an unexpected kazoo and emotional vocal layering. The result is what he describes as a “Punjabi Gothic melody” — rich in melancholy and filled with yearning, yet rooted in the tradition of oral folk storytelling. It’s music that lingers like a memory.
The accompanying music video, created in collaboration with StudioS, adds another dimension. Sethi’s sister, Mira Sethi, plays a nurse who, while listening to the song, begins to imagine herself slipping into the lives of her patients — each one living a story of loss, longing, or transformation. With appearances by Mikaal Zulfiqar, Mehreen Syed, Jimmy Khan, and others, the video doesn’t just support the song; it deepens it, presenting a dreamy, layered narrative about identity, empathy, and emotional inheritance.
Ultimately, Chan Kithan resonates because it speaks to something universal: the ache of wanting, of remembering, of not knowing where you stand with someone who once felt close but now feels far. Whether you’ve experienced a great love or only imagined one, the song taps into the same quiet ache. It’s the kind of track you play on a long drive, or in the silence of night, when your thoughts feel a little heavier than usual.
Ali Sethi’s Chan Kithan is more than just a song — it’s a feeling, a whisper from the past, and a beautiful way to start our First Find series.
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