Kolaveri Di - sang by Dhanush, music by Anirudh for the film 3 (Moonu - meaning Three) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YR12Z8f1Dh8 was a raging international sensation. In 10 days it had 5 million hits; the official version now has more than 68 million hits, if you count all the versions it probably touches or crosses 100 million. Belly achingly hilarious.
But what the hell do those lyrics mean? You need to be really local to Chennai, to get into the heart of the song, to feel the underbelly of the true meaning. I tell you the meaning is even more hilarious.
'Kolaveri' is literally translated into 'murderous rage'. In Chennai lingo thats not what it means - Kolaveri is the feeling of something unreasonable that provokes you to retaliate unreasonably. Mind you its only a feeling, when it translates into action of actually doing something to retaliate unreasonable, the term 'kolaveri' is not normally used (at least in a trivial sense). So when Dhanush sings 'Why this Kolaveri Di?' all it means is 'Why did you do this to me?'
Okay. So what about 'Soup boys'.
The soup in the song does not mean the soup that is made or served during a meal. No. It means a messed up situation and hence soup boys refers to young men whose life is distorted by difficulties in romantic relationships which may be real or imagined.
In Tamil if you said soup it means suck as in thumb sucking or slurp as in slurping down a soup. The soup boys hence simply alludes to the young men who are at various stages of rejection and are trying to cope; like a child does by sticking a thumb in its mouth and sucking it. It alludes to varying degrees of helplessness, frustration, feelings of powerlessness, sulking, inability to act and so on - usually of a temporary nature.
Most 'soup boys' do suffer from 'Kolaveri' and if you had 'Kolaveri' you are best advised to use the 'soup boy' technique to get over it.
Go Chennai (I still like Madras)
But what the hell do those lyrics mean? You need to be really local to Chennai, to get into the heart of the song, to feel the underbelly of the true meaning. I tell you the meaning is even more hilarious.
'Kolaveri' is literally translated into 'murderous rage'. In Chennai lingo thats not what it means - Kolaveri is the feeling of something unreasonable that provokes you to retaliate unreasonably. Mind you its only a feeling, when it translates into action of actually doing something to retaliate unreasonable, the term 'kolaveri' is not normally used (at least in a trivial sense). So when Dhanush sings 'Why this Kolaveri Di?' all it means is 'Why did you do this to me?'
Okay. So what about 'Soup boys'.
The soup in the song does not mean the soup that is made or served during a meal. No. It means a messed up situation and hence soup boys refers to young men whose life is distorted by difficulties in romantic relationships which may be real or imagined.
In Tamil if you said soup it means suck as in thumb sucking or slurp as in slurping down a soup. The soup boys hence simply alludes to the young men who are at various stages of rejection and are trying to cope; like a child does by sticking a thumb in its mouth and sucking it. It alludes to varying degrees of helplessness, frustration, feelings of powerlessness, sulking, inability to act and so on - usually of a temporary nature.
Most 'soup boys' do suffer from 'Kolaveri' and if you had 'Kolaveri' you are best advised to use the 'soup boy' technique to get over it.
Go Chennai (I still like Madras)
©M HEMADRI
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