I have come to accept that there is no escaping Why this Kolaveri di? What with reading about it in newspapers, discussing it with colleagues, finding facebook updates about it, avoiding tweets about it – it is as good as being stalked by the very Soup Boy that the song talks about.
The Tamil film industry is full of songs like these – jilted male lover, black-hearted fair-skinned girl who rejects him (when the reality is more like black-hearted black-skinned girl) and therefore the regular scotch for solace. Get a life, Soup Boy. Or become a better lover. Go learn Seduction 101. I want to see a woman crying with a glass of scotch for once in a Tamil movie. Over a person who is a good man but a dull lover.
Why this kolaveri di? is every grammar teacher’s fantasy come true. Here is a song so ripe with grammatical errors that the critical grammatician thinks her time has finally arrived and the world is ready to receive the spellcheck Messiah.
Before you accuse me of being a kill-joy let me redeem myself by saying I liked the song. Hell yeah I did! I mean, how often do you come across a Tamil song that everyone is talking about? My little egoistic Tamil genes are tripping with joy. Hallelujiah! Now, everyone is forced to know the meaning of that un-translatable word kolaveri. And it’s absolutely fine when a Tamilian is teasing the whole of the glorious tradition of us Tamilians and pronouncing ‘empty’ as ‘Yempty’. Perfecto! Is it bigger than SRK and Bib B? Uh....I don't care.But, is it worth all the gaga-ness? Hardly. Unoriginal lyrics (there have been funnier Tamil songs), boring voice (come on, it’s Danush, who are we kidding), irritating tune (I personally wouldn’t sing this even on a drunk call). Seems like we are buying into a well-strategized marketing agenda. Raja Sen hails it as the vox populi that brings us all together. The Hindustan Times praises the song by saying that it 'has become a rage in not just India but also Australia and the Americas for its catchy tune, traditional Tamil percussion and amusing lyrical style.' The Times of India states 'After a buzz in K-Town, Why This Kolaveri Di... from Aishwaryaa Dhanush's 3 has become nothing short of a phenomenon across the nation.' Enough with the romance. If anyone should be receiving the praise, I think it should be the publicists and advertisers and not Danush, Aishwarya, Anirudh or Shruti Haasan.
Danush revealed in an interview, "I had a lot of free time on the sets of 3. I just tried to put in some dummy words in the tunes and everyone liked it." Lesson to be learnt: if you have free time, do something with it, you can be famous. Provided you marry Rajinikanth's daughter.
For now, I like the song. But I wish to get up next morning and forget its name. No hard feelings, Soup Boy.
It is true that the song helped in integrating India in a much better way since it was the first Tamil song to be played on national TV and radio stations across Mumbai. Yes, I accept that the lyrics are pretty much useless which are ripe with grammatical errors but somewhere, we should learn to drop our fascination for grammar and learn to accept the song somewhere. I agree that Dhanush wasn't really a huge compliment or anything but again let us remember that this song was a rough version and not the actual one. I really hope this is not the version that makes it to the final cut in the soundtrack of 3.
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