Comments on: Why this murderous love, world?

Why this murderous love, world?

the cydonian — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 17:35:51 -0800

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.

By: naju

naju — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 17:48:00 -0800

I like the part where he told his mom to go get him some snacks. The first legit Tamil stoner anthem?

By: i_am_joe's_spleen

i_am_joe's_spleen — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 17:48:57 -0800

Maintain please.

By: naju

naju — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 17:49:54 -0800

(My own mom says the title translates to "Why all this killing?" but maybe she's not a great translator)

By: infini

infini — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 17:54:27 -0800

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.

By: infini

infini — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 17:56:43 -0800

The first legit Tamil stoner anthem From the narrow gallis of Kodaikanal...

By: chronkite

chronkite — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 18:08:42 -0800

Well that's one hot jam!

By: L'Estrange Fruit

L'Estrange Fruit — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 18:58:48 -0800

I clicked to mock, I stayed to love.

By: Joakim Ziegler

Joakim Ziegler — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 19:15:41 -0800

I think this is the first time I've heard an actual Indian person use the expression "holy cow".

By: tylerkaraszewski

tylerkaraszewski — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 20:01:19 -0800

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

By: Forktine

Forktine — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 20:11:45 -0800

This, I like.

By: arcticwoman

arcticwoman — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 22:37:25 -0800

Ditto, that was actually pretty great.

By: arto

arto — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 00:50:11 -0800

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.

By: the cydonian

the cydonian — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 03:20:07 -0800

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.

By: peacheater

peacheater — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 06:33:04 -0800

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.

By: infini

infini — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 07:48:57 -0800

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

By: kaibutsu

kaibutsu — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 08:36:27 -0800

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.

By: clarenceism

clarenceism — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 09:14:33 -0800

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.

By: bongo_x

bongo_x — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 11:39:49 -0800

>...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.

By: the cydonian

the cydonian — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 12:56:17 -0800

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.

By: infini

infini — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 15:55:19 -0800

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.

By: peacheater

peacheater — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 21:01:28 -0800

Sarika's daughter.

By: peacheater

peacheater — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 21:05:14 -0800

And yes, she is looking rather stunning these days.

By: infini

infini — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 21:47:06 -0800

Ah yes, Sarika - in The Hindu link's photograph, you can see her mother's profile

By: dhruva

dhruva — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 10:12:27 -0800

heh. The sharad pawar slap meets kolaveri.

By: nangar

nangar — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 13:18:50 -0800

Language Log on Kolaveri Di, plus link to a translation.

By: infini

infini — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 16:35:31 -0800

Where would life be without a KLPD or two?