"Chitthi Aayi Hai": Diasporic Sensibilities, Memory and Nostalgia

Abstract

Nostalgia has been a popular concept deployed to examine diasporic narratives. This paper is an examination of the song “Chitthi aayi hai” (“the letter has come from the homeland”) from the popular film Naam (1986) looking at how nostalgia is constructed and recreated. The song is about ‘a letter from the homeland’ gesturing at pain, memory, what has been lost and what is being achieved in the hostland. Through scholarly references to nostalgia, Bollywood music and diasporic theory, this study focuses on the role and function of nostalgia in Indian diasporic narrative practices.