‘Why this Kolaveri?,' a single from the forthcoming Tamil film 3, is the new buzz in town, the current symbol of popular culture
The song may have dumbed itself down as a ‘soup song,' condemned itself to be a ‘flop song', but so far, going by the number of downloads, blogs and tweets, it is having a fairy tale run. ‘Why this Kolaveri?' (‘Why this killer rage?'), a single from the forthcoming Tamil film ‘3,' is the new buzz in town, the current symbol of popular culture, and the subject of puzzled and admiring attention of the country.
‘Why this Kolaveri', sung by actor Danush himself, son-in-law of Rajinikanth and composed by the debutant Anirudh is a song in free style. It creatively mixes Tamil and English to express the angst of a young man whose lady love has either just walked out of his life or rejected his proposal. The words flow unmediated and that appeals. It takes a dig at the English speaking youths, locally nicknamed as the `Peter crowd,' who are often perceived to look down on the Tamil speaking who are no less in aspirations. The hybrid music which combines urban vernacular with the western is thus a conscious choice and going by the popularity it has worked.
Sung by a love sick youth in an inebriated condition, the lyric is apparently absurd, but the pathos is clear. The mocking humor is enjoyable, the beat is catchy, and sounds are refreshingly appealing. It is feet tapping, and brings in a smile. It is a Chennai chutney - sweet and salt.
Tamil films have always tried to create space for both classical music based melodies, which unmistakably appeal to the upper class, and also the vernacular rhythm based pacy songs, which has found support amongst the youth. With the successful emergence of antihero characters, popularly portrayed by Rajinikanth and Vijayakanth, the local beats have gained more space, and the urban versions have seen an ascent.
Danush has improvised on this dark skinned antihero phenomenon and produced a convincing romantic version of it. If the song ‘Vacha Kannale' from his previous national award winning movie, ‘Aadukalam,' represents the folk version of the romantic, ‘Why this Kolaveri' is the Tamil urban ethnic.
But there is no doubt ‘Why this Kolaveri', like many other Tamil songs before it, is unmistakably juvenile and clearly male chauvinistic. The lyric blames the woman for all ills. She is white skinned but her heart is dark, the song blames. The story line of the movie may try to justify this, but Kolaveri is not an isolated occurrence. In a way it is not very different from the other hugely popular new song ‘Adi da avala' (‘hit her') sung by Danush in the other forthcoming film ‘Mayakam Enna', where the anti-woman stance and the self pitying nature is violently explicit. Both the songs unashamedly carry the domineering male perspective of romance, marriage and life in total.
Not only Danush, many heroes before him including Kamal Hassan and Rajinikanth have unrepentantly played to the male-dominant gallery and derided women. Songs like ‘Why this Kolaveri' are fractal versions of the movies they are part of – one long narrative of ‘eve teasing'.
Keywords: Kolaveri song, 3, Dhanush, Tamil films, gender bias
I believe its outrageous to even think that way about the song!!..Anyone in his or her right senses would catch the sense of humor in the song!!..its just a song!!and he is singing in TANGLISH for god's sake!!why wud anyone take it serious?!!..Just chill man!!its a song and even those who didnt understand it are drooling over this!
I do take offence to the 'white-girl', dark heart part. And it is a pity that Tamil films keep casting girls of fair skin and holds that as the standard. It does damage girls' self esteem and boys' sense of beauty and what to appreciate. It is interesting that boys are not held to any such standards of external appearance. I do not know about this song or this film, but many many Indian films portray heroes who are always right, who dominate their women, are shown to slap them and the film justifies it by portraying the woman as independent/egoistic who 'needed' the correction! (Never is a woman shown to have corrected a man) And women hardly make any contribution in the story in a moral/courageous/nurturing/any other way, but are just eye candy.
God .... this is the craziest article I have read ...... the song was
just a simple song of a guy expressing his feelings and singing in a
funny way ..... the author has gone to the extent of comparing it back
to the past tamil films ....... and eve teasing ... god that is heights
Imagine the British of the Raj singing a song with pop-culture references to Indians that are similar to pop-culture references to women like in Kolaveri - "Indians are so dirty. But their smiles are so nice". I mean who could in their right mind find that offensive, right?
By all means, enjoy the song, sing it aloud. I do not think that's what the author was discouraging. The point of the article is the aftertaste such songs leave in culture. It has not been articulated very well in the article, but it's a valid point.
The very fact that people keep saying 'just chill' shows HOW unaffected we, as a society, are by mcps. We are SO used to it that we don't even recognise it when it's dancign naked before us. Wake up, people! This is a song affected by misogynistic undertone and I'm glad that somebody expressed so (and 'The Hindu' chose to publish it).
These are some good times for Tamil cinema. With actors like dhanush taking up and doing what they like, its the audience who must decide what to choose. Concluding the song to be an eve teaser is absolute 10 year old. Grow up. At least Some one shows even this would work. The song is simple and easy. Thus the rage. So Stop whining and appreciate the fact that a Tamil song has given challenge to some popular hip hop artists.
Its shocking to see so much support for such a song which has portrayed every form of discrimination.. Girls supporting this song kindly note that this is how we were/are silently being pushed back and we ourselves are falling in to the pit..These things should not be encouraged at all though the situation of the film requires it, every guy takes it as granted to insult girls! Cinema is a powerful medium and it is very essential to use it in the right way!
I totally agree with @Nithya.. I am from Hyderabad which basically has a large telugu speaking pool of people. The song was first played in my campuses hostel on sunday, the 24th. Just two days later the song was running on everybody's lips. you could hear it practically everywhere- in the waiting halls, the class rooms, the canteen's and the dorm's. What makes the song a success is the catchy tune, with beats that we hear on the streets of India(We love those beats but we rarely mention it!!). lets leave the argument of whether the song is good for progressive society or not and just enjoy the song.
This is just a silly, time pass song and no need to deconstruct any structuralistic framework.
Just change Di to Da, girl to boy, interchange dark and white as needed in the lyrics - any
girl can sing this too :-) BTW, why this Kolaveri to analyze everything to its logical
conclusion? Moments pass, meanings fade, and time transcends everything - Just
"poonthax" in the middle and "chillax" :-)
mokka boys. Can't enjoy one stupid songu?
The tune, I do like but not the lyrics. Why do we have to perpetuate all
the societal divisions that our parents generation created or sustained:
man vs. woman, white vs. dark-skinned, tamil vs. non tamil. Yea, yea I
did 'chill' and enjoy the tune, but at the same time, as a responsible
citizen, I feel obligated to worry about societal divisions widening. It
definitely is possible and appropriate to judge an artist based on both
talent and on moral grounds, after all isn't that how the rest of us are
judged at work or at home?
Ok, ok good analysis, How about anyone to make it their subject for a Phd?
" Both the songs unashamedly carry the domineering male perspective of
romance, marriage and life in total."
Well put! This was my first reaction on watching the song on youtube
too... the modern white-skinned english-spouting girl is blamed for the
insecurities and inabilities of tamil (Indian) men... have we not moved
on at all??!
I did not even go past the title, will just say this, it is a song which has got its fan following across the globe not only in Regional quarters, most of us do not even understand the language, it is a fun song, if every thing an artist does will be evaluated on moral parameters, i doubt if art/cinema would be allowed to prosper. So chill, enjoy the 4 minutes of that song and forget it.
Dear author - take the lady's advice, just chill !! Misogynist, fractal, domineering - big words to describe a simple boy-heartache song. He is not blaming any of the world's ills on her, so it's defnitely not misogynist. And before you talk about the style, you should definitely examine the premise with which you come into this.
Agree with @Nithya. The song need not be dissected so seriously.
well written article.this song is similar to ‘Adi da avala' .Songs like these are not good for a progressive society.
Honestly, does not a man have freedom to express? He is depressed and these are the thoughts that come to him, in an inebriated state. The song is popular because it refuses to take itself seriously. Seems like the author is desperate to read between lines, and find it to be oppressing women. Will we start looking at it as "English" oppressing the vernacular soon? Such levels of intolerence amongst "intelligentsia".It doesn't make any claims of being rich in artistic content nor make any statements which the author seems to be seeing. Condemning the entire body of Tamil Cinema as being a long narrative of eve teasing is what is Juvenile. Clearly the author has little knowledge of it. The same Aadukalam has narrative of the Anglo Indian's(and girls) plight, which belie the authors interpretation. with glaring errors,its "Otha sollale" and claiming Vijaykanth and Rajni's brought in acceptance of anti-hero and folk music. Chandrababu and MRR must be unknown to the author.
this is a light-hearted song meant for easy listening, being liked both by boys and girls. It will be sad if someone tries to interpret it in a different way, as in the above article, and also as an excuse for eve teasing.
Chill!!! As a woman, i am respect your concern. Yes, there are many songs in tamil movies which have the eve teasing element to it. But, I do not think this song has anything of that sort.It is just funny. He is just singing about his heart break in a funny way.
Very appropriate conclusion, so, if our girls allow us, lets remove the undertone and just enjoy the beat and mood of the song lightheartedly.
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