Why this murderous love, world?

November 23, 2011 5:35 PM

Yo boys. I am sing song. Soup song. Flop song. "It's not meant to be anti-anything. Director [Aishwarya Dhanush] said the situation demanded a light-hearted fun song about love failure. I came up with a tune in ten minutes. I don't know what kind of mood Dhanush was in… he started singing in broken English and came up with this in 20 minutes. It just happened". Presenting India's newest music phenomenon, a Tamil-English dada-ist patische eulogizing unrequited love through Madras street-slang, and hypnotic earthy drums.

Indian English slang can be daunting, so you'd want to look it up. This song presents a whole new challenge, though; "kolaveri" can either mean "a murderous rage" or "an emotive response of a guy who is lost in love and is feeling the brunt", depending on whom you ask. "Soup boys" are apparently those who were unsuccessful in wooing their romantic interests, and a soup-song is a song about them. A certain colourful Delhi phrase has been suggested as a substitute.

English songs made by the south Indian film industry aren't new, of course; previous works include those that were ahead of their times (comic inspired by this now cult classic), attempts at hip-hop, and pieces satirizing and celebrating its over the top 70's flicks.

posted by the cydonian (26 comments total)

I like the part where he told his mom to go get him some snacks. The first legit Tamil stoner anthem?
posted by naju at 5:48 PM on November 23, 2011 [3 favorites]

Maintain please.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 5:48 PM on November 23, 2011 [3 favorites]

(My own mom says the title translates to "Why all this killing?" but maybe she's not a great translator)
posted by naju at 5:49 PM on November 23, 2011

This song has gone viral, The Cydonian, had been seeing it pop up across my twitter feeds - nice to finally see it on the blue, in context.

Btw, he reminds me of this whole swathe of young men I used to know as a young undergrad in engineering. Cute but I've outgrown my attraction the style and type, maybe.
posted by infini at 5:54 PM on November 23, 2011

The first legit Tamil stoner anthem

From the narrow gallis of Kodaikanal...
posted by infini at 5:56 PM on November 23, 2011

Well that's one hot jam!
posted by chronkite at 6:08 PM on November 23, 2011

I clicked to mock, I stayed to love.
posted by L'Estrange Fruit at 6:58 PM on November 23, 2011 [6 favorites]

I think this is the first time I've heard an actual Indian person use the expression "holy cow".
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 7:15 PM on November 23, 2011 [2 favorites]

I would like a Spotify playlist of music in the same genre, if anyone has one. Would be appreciated.
posted by tylerkaraszewski at 8:01 PM on November 23, 2011 [4 favorites]

This, I like.
posted by Forktine at 8:11 PM on November 23, 2011

Ditto, that was actually pretty great.
posted by arcticwoman at 10:37 PM on November 23, 2011

Yeah, loved it.

I swear the guy in the blue shirt with the bowl cut (producer?) looks like a brown Michael Cera though, which is kind of odd.
posted by arto at 12:50 AM on November 24, 2011

I like the part where he told his mom to go get him some snacks.

So maamma in Tamil is "uncle". It's a bit like saying "dude" in American English.

I would like a Spotify playlist of music in the same genre, if anyone has one.

Can't get the Spotify app on any of my Singapore-AppStore-registered devices, but here's a blog post on the genre; apparently, it's called dappankanthu, with multiple recognized sub-genres. Has links to quite a few songs there.

This song won the National Award this year for the best cinematography. This is an old favourite.

Dappankanthu has flirted with cricket as well; consider Chennai Super Kings' semi-official anthem ("Whistle for Chennai Super Kings"), with its off-tune horns, street drums and simple, repeated lines.

Then there's Nakka Mukka, going at a zillion beats per second, with its female version, and its English "translation" made for a newspaper ad. Apparently, the song is a collection of urban scenery in the Tamil heartland.
posted by the cydonian at 3:20 AM on November 24, 2011 [13 favorites]

The girl at your far left is Shruti Haasan, who was my classmate through much of school. I knew she was acting in Dhanush's 3 but haven't seen it yet. It's too bad that she doesn't seem to do much in this video, besides look very pretty.
posted by peacheater at 6:33 AM on November 24, 2011 [1 favorite]

Any relative of Kamal Hasan or do I just have the spelling wrong?
posted by infini at 7:48 AM on November 24, 2011

I like the part where the beat drops and the singer says something to the control room guys but the autotune's still on so his voice gets stretched all over the place. That was great.
posted by kaibutsu at 8:36 AM on November 24, 2011

Shruti Haasan is a goddess. I was hoping she'd sing when they showed her at the mic but I guess I'll have to be satisfied with the visual tease. She was the highlight of a lukewarm romantic comedy I had to endure on a video bus to the Himalaya--hopefully this video will get her a bit more exposure outside the Indo-film sphere.

This song will no doubt be in my head for a while, and I'm glad it has supplanted the torture of Rebecca Black.
posted by clarenceism at 9:14 AM on November 24, 2011

>...look very pretty…<

You have a gift for understatement. I like the song a lot and going to look for more, but that’s not why I watched the whole video.
posted by bongo_x at 11:39 AM on November 24, 2011

Any relative of Kamal Hasan or do I just have the spelling wrong?

Kamal Haasan's daughter. :) Apparently, the producer is Rajnikanth's daughter and the singer/ hero is her husband. The music director is also somehow related to the Rajnikanth clan.

Shruti Haasan is a decent-ish music composer in her own right, although (and I say this as someone who hasn't kept pace with Kollywood, like ever) she's perhaps focussing on acting lately.
posted by the cydonian at 12:56 PM on November 24, 2011

Hm, Vani or Sarita's? either way beautiful women

Rajnikanth, apparently, was the bus conductor on the BTS route to Bull Temple Road where our college was located, when he was discovered.
posted by infini at 3:55 PM on November 24, 2011

Sarika's daughter.
posted by peacheater at 9:01 PM on November 24, 2011

And yes, she is looking rather stunning these days.
posted by peacheater at 9:05 PM on November 24, 2011

Ah yes, Sarika - in The Hindu link's photograph, you can see her mother's profile
posted by infini at 9:47 PM on November 24, 2011

heh. The sharad pawar slap meets kolaveri.
posted by dhruva at 10:12 AM on November 25, 2011

Language Log on Kolaveri Di, plus link to a translation.
posted by nangar at 1:18 PM on November 25, 2011

Where would life be without a KLPD or two?
posted by infini at 4:35 PM on November 25, 2011