For starters, there is a website called www.kolaveri.com and wikipedia, despite Jimmy Wales open plea to the users to donate 100/200 rupees for the sustenance of the online encyclopedia, the organization has launched it's Wiki page for Kolaveri. Secondly, it is Kolaveri (and not Colaveri or Cole Avery)- already part of Samosapedia and is sure to make a grand entry into the Tamil-Urban dictionary; not to forget the omnipresent Weight-u, How-u, Scotch-u etc. Possibility of a Tanglish dictionary launch by Lifco? I am betting my money on it. Reason is simple. With a whacky tune, intelligently placed interregnums between the vocals filled with innovative instruments makes it enjoyable. But the song spreading like an epidemic from Usulampatti to Utah makes many people wonder what made this such a rage.
There exists this stereotyping of Telugu language where the vernacular ignorance makes one say- ''add a 'lu' to the end of every word!'' Now, Tanglish is not far behind. The only difference is add a ''u'' to words and voila! you have it. That's exactly what has made Poet (sorry! Poet-u) Dhanush a phenomenon. The heavy inflow of these bizarre words - which sound cool when part of a conversation- can rather start a bad trend and we may lose the identity which defines us. After a couple of songs in 'Mayakkam Enna' with outrageous lyric use, now we are amidst 'Why this Kolaveri di''. Apparently, this phrase translates into 'why this murderous rage, girl?' No browny points for guessing that this song is about the girl who is cruel, and breaks the guy's heart. (Dhanush gets this situation in almost all his films!) We have had the same scenario subtly penned as '' Vaarthai thavari vittai kannama, maarbu thudikkudhadi '' in yester-year cinema. This one example portrays the richness of the Tamil language. I am not against the Gen-Y songs at all. It is refreshing to hear. I laugh it out when listening, thanks to the raw lyrics. On the other hand, one wonders what could possibly be the motivation behind the use of such colloquial words. This can very well be foreseen as an easy way of making a song reach the core masses and making it a hit in the process. Soon intricate parameters of a song like soul, poetry may see the closet. These tanglish morphemes may emerge to be uber-cool, but surely ain't going to improve the pulchritude of the language nor the knowledge about/quality of the words.
One always gets the feel that this promotional song, brimming with features that is directly targeted at the youth had winner written all over it. It is aimed at the masculine gender, by using demotic verses that make females look like heartless creations. (Yes! It is referring only to the character in the film and not otherwise yaada yaada..) The reason why even though MSD has won more matches for India with his brains and bat, Sachin is still revered because of the classic nature he brings to the game. Cricket now is enjoyable thanks to Dhoni's dynamics and Sachin's authentic style. Similarly, a balance is required in music. Time has evolved. We have had Kannadasan, Vaali etc. making way for Kaarkis and Muthukumars. Kaarki and Dhanush belong to the same generation, but have redefined lyric writing in opposite polarities. While the former rightly being seen as a 'lyric engineer' (Irumbile oru Idhayam, Kuviyamilla Kaatchi pezhai) Dhanush is slowly turning to be an antithesis. One hopes Dhanush sticks to acting, which he is so good at and showcases his poetry skill at much lesser frequencies. Judging the rest of the album to be akin to this number is premature and as a Tamil film music patron hope there is versatility and a balance between contemporary music and classical music is maintained.
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