Ali Sethi is at long last back with his latest gem Chan Kithan. The music video tackles love, drugs, and class divide, accompanied by the singer’s soulful vocals. Chan Kithan, originally sung by beloved Attaullah Khan Esakhelvi depicts realities within Pakistan’s belittling society with an undertone of the fairytale story Cinderella. Where social classes reign as unfortunate barriers and didactic compasses all fade into a blur, this nostalgic ode underpins the yearning to ‘fit in.’  The video boasts a stellar cast with Mira Sethi, Mikaal Zulfiqar and Mehreen Syed who tell the tale of Chan Kithan effortlessly.

Mira Sethi is the reserved girl hailing from a lower class who travels the night streets of Lahore on her way to a party

Whereby she arrives at what looks like a grand venue.

It’s a glorified party for the elite, with your routine clinking wine glasses, frivolous antics

Elaborately dressed waiters (where we spot Ali Sethi in a cameo), and guests draped in their finest clothes.

Mira hasn’t dressed herself up to play the role of the princess as in the fable. She arrives as who she is, and is entirely ignored by a frivolous Mikaal Zulfiqar who, alongside Mehreen Syed is far too preoccupied and oblivious to notice anything.

A bedazzled Mira enters and it is Mikaal she sees amidst the crowd.

As the story that unfolds, we reach the crux of it all; the longing Mira has to ultimately ‘belong.’

As she daydreams we see a dolled up Mira who jells well with Mikaal, and for a brief pause what feels like a moment of clarity

Crumbles into an unfortunate reality for Mira who later witnesses a hushed drug session.

She is terrified and grasps hold of actualities. This is unfamiliar territory for her.

Her consciousness kicks in and she runs, leaving her chappal behind, much like the story of Cinderella.

Although Mikaal notices the chappal, he’s far too oblivious and intoxicated to uphold the way the traditional folktale unravels.

Mikaal later falls sick, and the story shifts to the hospital, where Mira is the nurse who takes care of him.

They exchange an achingly short dialogue and he still hasn’t recognized her. The story is distressfully incomplete, with nothing remotely fairytale-like about it.

And that’s what makes it all the more real. Mira is Mikaal’s savior – he isn’t her’s.

While in Cinderella we see the prince coming to the rescue of the princess, it’s Ali Sethi’s Chan Kithan that defies the conventional story.

Mikaal’s character symbolically portrays members of society who flounder in their own blindness, unwilling to venture out of their bubbles.

And while some like Mira might feel caged at times, often bound to the hindrances of their classes, it is others like Mikaal who thrive in their own.

Have a watch below.

What did you think of the video? Did you enjoy it?