Why This Kolaveri Di! -Song Review. Review on Songs Of The Heart Vol. 1

Yo boyz and girlz I am write review! Owing to a separate review category not being created for this song on request, I've taken the liberty of using this album category.

The phenomenon begins- Yo boys I am sing song- This is announced by Dhanush to his pals in immaculate Queen's English. It is, we are informed, a soup song ,a flop song (Soup song = Heartbreak song according to Prof.Dhanush) He has a royal ball here naughtily crooning the whole song which soon poses a question which all gentlemen might have pondered over in their life at some point when faced with an unreasonable female - Why this Kolaveri (whole cubed) di ?

This conundrum has, at the time of writing this, received more than 20 million hits on Youtube, and has comfortably become one of Indian Cinema's most successful pre-release promos. For those who have no idea what we are discussing here, a viewing of this 4-minute song is in order if they are to make any sense of the meaning context ethos and all the words ending with "-u" ! The setting is a recording studio- young thin cine hero -Dhanush who made his bones being super-intense, is relaxed playful and wicked here in front of the microphone. In the "supervizing & adjusting" room with all the fine-tuning equipment, we see 3 people: Anirudh -the boyish-looking music composer who was awarded the top prize by A.R.Rahman for an instrumental music contest (which thankfully was not adjudicated by a mass-voting audience) There's Aishwarya -who is Father of Tamil Nadu- Rajnikanth's daughter. Aishwarya wanted a love-failure song for her film (love-failure {LF} is profoundly understood & empathized with in Tamil Nadu which is why a well-made LF film there can go on to become a raging hit) Pre-empting the music director on this challenge,Dhanush composed a ditty on the spot and the rest,as they say, is class&mass history. Looking slick and keen here,Aishwarya is this movie's director and is married to Dhanush in real life. And there's Shruti Hassan snugly clad in a gray top- a dead ringer here for Sonam Kapoor and often seeming to be a gorgeously pretty blend betwen the latter and Sarika (SH's mother). Shruti certifiably comes across a stunning new contribution by Kamal Hassan and Sarika to the Indian film industry- she quietly provides delicious cosmetic and "item"-value to Why this Kolaveri Di

Urban Dictionary defines Kolaveri as 'Killer Rage' and Mallu-Tamil folks will tell you that "Di" means 'hey girl!/woman!' The song jauntily proceeds with the lead singer's vocals rendered with knack and spirit, and ably complemented & enhanced by a languid finger-snapping, toe-tapping rhythm-syncing combo of clarinet/saxophone,drums and guitar. Aniruddh early in the song tries to introduce some refined accompaniment from the piano but Aishwarya holds him in check- she wants to retain the minimalistic urchin-ballad flavour of the song.

Keeping the frame on the alabaster hide of the two girls, Dhanush then observes in Saambhaar-accented English: White skin-u girl-u girl-u, girl-u heart-u black-u!

Our nation's culture often identifies white skin with beauty (which is why Halle Berry isn't fully appreciated in India) and there's the internationally popular notion of beautiful bosoms concealing black hearts- these two concepts taken together explain the afore-typed line.

Eyes-u eyes-u meet-u meet-u, my future-u dark-u - This succeeding lyric captures the raptures of new love, and the subsequent sorrow of long-term love (!) The camera work throughout is superb: the colour-tone is mellow, just a touch of sepia and dark backdrop with a softly refulgent front-lighting. A flash of the camera is perfectly timed to capture Aishwarya's involved face as she gives a satisfied nod to the rhythm.

We then see certain informal conferences between the players,and we're made to hear some good-humoured semi-drunken intonations by the singer before he launches forth onto the next stage of these expositions.

Then when Dhanush is about to say "Kaila-glaasu" meaning "glass in the hand', he is quickly corrected and told to revert to Tenglish- so change to Handla-glass ,glass-la scotch-u, eyes-u full-aa tear-u. Empty life-u,girl-u come-u life-u reverse-u gear-u

-The torturous reality and subsequent orgasmic hope in these lines hardly need to be explained ,except to clarify that Dhanush ,having ascended to the Taj&Oberoi lifestyle perhaps has forgotten that his heart-broken boys ,more often than Scotch, would likely be quaffing XXX Khoday's rum,Mansion House brandy,or even good ol' toddy in the hinterlands to drown the poision of blotched romance... On another note, this segment is notable for sporting smart cinematography- shifting sequential frames segue & cut to match the rhythm of rising-'n'-dipping cadences of the https://lyrics.

Lovvu Lov-u,Oh my Love-u, you showed me bouv-u

Cow-u Cow-u Holy-cow-u,I want you hear now-u

God-u I am dying now-u ,she is happy now-u

Here the hero confesses that love-u showed him bouv-u -I researched this latter word on Google- Samosapedia tells us that bouv-u is the alliterative word for a dog's bark which is meant to scare us away. This rhymes with love-u ,but actually connotes that the girl is making a similar gesture/sound and shooing away her suitor! Next,I will leave you, dear reader ,to decipher the context of the Cow-Holy Cow lines. Lastly, we all know that human history has always been marked by the archetype of the suffering sacrificing female ,but the modern era is a witness to the guys ,more than ever before , desperately trying and often sinking in bottomless despair while trying to woo or put up with the girls -thus this line details how we innocent tragedy-struck boys are dying whereas the females watch laugh and derive their sadistic happiness.

"This-u song-u for soup boys-u, we don't have choice-u" - our man with great empathy and humanity ,dedicates this song to "us" who are ensnared by our worship of those lovely ladies with black hearts! Then, after a nice mellifluous throw of his voice- nobly helped by the synthesizer- and some zesty grunts, the hero's concluding echo of the main lines along with the brigade of instruments bring this eminently playful anthem to a close.

All these mischievous sly mongrel lyrics have no doubt been instrumental in driving this song's popularity. Apart from the helpful visuals of the girls who are easy on the eyes and the overall chic camerawork, Dhanush generously aids in the impact of this song with his vibrant acting- note his knowing smart-ass restrained smile when singing "eyes full of tear-u", how he trenchantly emphasizes "life reverse gear-u" (after girl comes!), and the manner in which he has a nice laugh while crooning "God I'm dying-now,she's happy now-u"! I haven't watched his films for quite a while -but vividly remember the explosive impact and super music of Kaadhan Kondaen directed by K.Selvaraghavan.

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