I had never really given much attention to this song until the
gruesome murder of Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP) leader T.P.Chandrasekharan
at Onchiyam in Kerala on 4th May 2012. The Post Mortem report stated
that he had over 50 wounds on his body – the question that kept haunting me: Why
this Kolaveri Dee? (Why this murderous rage?). But I was quickly told that I
had taken the title of the famous song totally out of its original context:
Relationships - being dumped by a girlfriend.
‘Why this Kolaveri Dee’ is a Tamil song from the soundtrack of the Tamil film 3. According to composer Anirudh
Ravichander,
3's director Aishwarya
Rajinikanth Dhanush wanted a "light-hearted" song about failed love.
Ravichander quickly composed the tune in about 10 minutes. Dhanush then began
work on the lyrics, which he completed in about 20 minutes of playful singing
and writing in broken English, as a Tamil person might if his knowledge of
English was limited. The song is also called a 'Soup' song, where 'Soup' is a
colloquial word which refers to young men experiencing failure in their
romantic relationships. The words of the song are in a simple mixture of Tamil and English. The singer is presented
as an Indian boy whose girlfriend has rejected him. He is drunk as he sings,
asking why she hurt him this way. The words have been described as
"nonsensical" by some but Dhanush has said that the simple colloquial
words used help make the song something that "people can relate to".
Released in November 2011, the song became the top downloaded song on
mobile with 10,000 downloads within the first 18 days of release. Its rapid
spread to nightclubs and discos in Tokyo, Japan were reported soon after release. The song and versions of it
account for more than 50 million of YouTube's total views. The popularity of
the song was also reported by international media like BBC
and Time magazine, who attributed its
major crossover world appeal to its universal theme, catchy tune and unique
lyrics. Top business schools like Indian Institutes of Management conducted studies to figure out the popularity
of this song. The song has inspired flash mobs in Chennai, Mumbai and even in Auckland, New Zealand. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh invited Dhanush for the
dinner party along with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda in his New Delhi
residence, India. The political parties plan to use variants of the song in
their campaigns for 2012 assembly elections. In April 2012, a petition was filed in
the Kerala High
Court
seeking a ban on the song citing negative influence on children, claiming to
inciting violence and aggression.
If this song had touched a familiar chord somewhere in the psyche of
today’s youth it was surely worth contemplating on. I decided to do a ‘Quiet
Time’ on the lyrics to try to make some sense of what seemed absolutely
nonsensical.
Here I go...
My
life is in a soup and everything else also seems to be a soup. I am a flop but
I am not alone. The whole world around me seems to be in shambles, and nobody
seems to know how to make sense of it. Why?
Instructions
of ‘rhythm correct’, ‘maintain please’ and ‘now tune change’ have gotten into
the lyrics of the song as part of the dire need to get rid of the masks that
have become a given in life. It is a way of saying: I am fed up with whatever
is doctored or manipulated to give a false front. Let there be no editing on my
song of life. Let me be true, original and genuine.
The
moon far away is white and stands in stark contrast to the night sky in black:
I wish things were as simple as that: black and white, with no grey shades of
confusion. While the moon may give me a glimmer of hope, most of what I see
around is depressingly black. Why?
The
girl who dumped me, had a facade of white skin, but her heart was black. When I
look into her eyes, I know my future is dark. Why did this have to happen to
me?
Mom
is still around and her true love is expressed not in words but in simple acts
of unrewarded service. She never fails. What a difference!
To
run away from my raging emotions I resort to addictions. Deep down within me is
an empty feeling. My eyes are full of tears. My life seems to be moving only in
reverse gear.
I
still love you, even though you dumped me. You have become an addiction in my
life. I am hurting. But you are happy. We have no choice. Why these raging
emotions?
In the world of relationships this
song depicts the real struggles of this generation: the search for meaning and
purpose in a world that seems to be falling apart, the longing for genuine mask
free relationships, the longing for true love, the duplicity of what looked
good only on the outside, the desire for certainty in a world of ambiguity, the
soothing dependability of a mother’s acts of love contrasted to a world where
romantic love was so transient and unreliable, the lack of hope in a despairing
future, the pain of addictions and the struggle within to rein in one’s own
raging emotions and finally the resignation of having to accept certain things
in life simply because we have no choice.
Are you able to identify with the
pain expressed in the lyrics of this song? If we don’t, we are probably not fit
to minister to this generation.
Way back in 1972, Henri J. M. Nouwen
in the introduction to his book, ‘The Wounded Healer’ wrote: ‘For all ministers
are called to recognize the sufferings of their time in their own hearts, and
make to that recognition the starting point of their service. Whether we try to
enter into a dislocated world, relate to a convulsive generation, or speak to a
dying person, our service will not be perceived as authentic unless it comes
from a heart wounded by the suffering about which we speak.’
Jesus Christ said: I have come to
heal the broken hearted. As one who was himself betrayed from within His inner
circle of friends, He knows the pain of being dumped. He only can understand
you fully and comfort you. Jesus Christ says to you: ‘Come unto me...I will
give you rest.’
