The song has got over two million hits on the internet. Social networking sites and blogs are flooded with tags of Kolaveri Di. But the man behind the song still feels "It's meant to be fun. You should not attach too much importance to it." Mumbai Mirror gets talking with the singer, lyricist and national award-winning actor Dhanush about his creation Kolaveri, father in law Rajinikanth and working in his wife's film Moondru (3).
According to the article, while the song's lyrics are practically gibberish, the country can't seem to stop listening to it. The catchy tune has generated nearly 19 million views on YouTube, to date.
The song's success has lifted the spirits of the entire production team of the film. Dhanush, the lead actor, tweeted: "To all my north Indian Kolaveri fans, thanks for receiving a Tamil song with a warm heart and making it a global song. God bless."
Incidentally, the origin of the word "kolaveri" has generated interesting debates. According to several conversations on the Internet, the word has been generally translated as "murderous rage".
Meanwhile, the song has just won the YouTube Gold Award, which is presented to videos that have gone viral.
"It is true. The record label has received official intimation. I don't know if they will have a function to present the award but yes, Kolaveri has been chosen for the award," confirmed Anirudh.
According to the article, while the song's lyrics are practically gibberish, the country can't seem to stop listening to it. The catchy tune has generated nearly 19 million views on YouTube, to date.
The song's success has lifted the spirits of the entire production team of the film. Dhanush, the lead actor, tweeted: "To all my north Indian Kolaveri fans, thanks for receiving a Tamil song with a warm heart and making it a global song. God bless."
Incidentally, the origin of the word "kolaveri" has generated interesting debates. According to several conversations on the Internet, the word has been generally translated as "murderous rage".
Meanwhile, the song has just won the YouTube Gold Award, which is presented to videos that have gone viral.
"It is true. The record label has received official intimation. I don't know if they will have a function to present the award but yes, Kolaveri has been chosen for the award," confirmed Anirudh.
Why This Kolaveri Di
Why This Kolaveri Di (Tamil: வொய் திஸ் கொலவெறி டி, Voy Tis Kolaveṟi Ṭi ?; English: Why This Murderous Rage, Girl?[1]) is a Indian song from the soundtrack of the upcoming Tamil language film 3, which is due to be released in 2012. Written and sung by actor Dhanush, the song was composed by music director Anirudh Ravichander.
A downtempo dance gaana-ballad song, "Why This Kolaveri Di" has been described as "genre bending" by critics, built around an ancient South Indian folk rhythm. Its instrumentation consists of nadaswaram, shehnai, saxophone, urumee and thavil drums, acoustic guitar and keyboards mixed with electronic synths and scratches. The vocals utilize the singing style of Tamil folk culture. Lyrically, the song revolves around the film's main protagonist being dumped by his girlfriend; the song is sung by the character in a drunken state, with many of the lines nonsensical.
The song was officially released on 16 November 2011, and it instantly became viral on social networking sites for its quirky "Tanglish" (portmanteau word of Tamil and English) lyrics.[2] Soon, the song became the most searched YouTube video in India and an internet phenomenon across Asia.[3][4][5][6] Within a few weeks, YouTube honoured the video with a Recently Most Popular Gold Medal Award for receiving a large number of hits in a short time
Creation
According to 21-year-old composer Anirudh Ravichander, director Aishwarya Rajinikanth Dhanush (actor Dhanush's wife & daughter of actor Rajinikanth ) wanted a "light-hearted" song about failed love. Ravichander quickly composed the tune in just about 5 minutes.[6] Dhanush then began work on the lyrics, which he completed in about 20 minutes of playful singing and writing.[9] The first line he sung was, "Why This Kolaveri?" which means "Why do you have this murderous rage against me?" The question, however, is not intended seriously.[6]
In an party to The Times of India, Dhanush said "When I was writing down the lyrics, I kept in mind all the English words that are used in the Tamil vocabulary. Words like I, you, me, how, why, cow.. I just framed them into sentences and thats how I came up with the song."[10] Dhanush sang the song 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 Tamil word which refers to young men experiencing failure in their romantic relationships.[6]
The song was recorded at A. R. Rahman's AM Studios in Chennai. After an early version of the song was leaked to the internet, is creators noticed its popularity and decided to go for an official release.[9][11]
[edit] Composition
Why This Kolaveri Di (Leaked version) feat.Dhanush
"Why This Kolaveri Di" (leaked version), featuring Dhanush
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A midtempo dance song, "Why This Kolaveri Di" has been described as "genre bending" by critics. Composer Ravichander built the composition around an ancient south Indian folk rhythm using ancient folk instruments. He used the nadaswaram, shehnai, saxophone and other instruments such as the urumee and thavil drums, acoustic guitar, keyboards mixed with electronic synths and scratches.[6] The vocals utilize the singing style of Tamil folk culture. The composer wanted the song's instrumentation to become more layered as the song progressed, ending in a crescendo.[6]
The words of the song are in a simple form of Tanglish, a 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.[5][9] The words have been described as "nonsensical" by some and an evocation of "Tamil street humour".[5] Dhanush has said that the simple colloquial words used help make the song something that "people can relate to."[12]
[edit] Music video
The music video features the actor-playback singer Dhanush singing the song at AM studios, accompanied by composer Anirudh on a keyboard. His co-star Shruthi Haasan and 3's director, Aishwarya Rajinikanth are seen listening in the background. [13][14]
[edit] Release and reception
Upon release, the hashtag #kolaveri topped the Indian trends in Twitter on the evening of 21 November 2011. Within a week of the official release of the video, it received more than 1.3 million views on YouTube, more than 1 million shares on Facebook, while trending in India on Twitter the whole time. The song is also a hit among non-Tamils, apparently due to the Tanglish lyrics.[14][15][12] By 30 November 2011 it had more than 10,500,000 YouTube views.[16]. By the start of 2012, it had crossed 30 million Youtube views.[17]
The song became the top downloaded song on mobile with 2,10,000 downloads within the first 18 days of release.[18] On 24 November 2011, this song became the first Tamil film song to premier on MTV India.[19] The song had achieved 38 million hits on YouTube as of 21 January 2012.[20] The song and versions of it account for almost 40 million of YouTube's total views.[21]
Imitations and parodies of this song have been created, including versions in different Indian languages, a female version, and versions about current events at that time, such as the Sharad Pawar slapping incident.[22][23] Its rapid spread to nightclubs and discos in Tokyo, Japan were reported soon after release, and a viral video of Japanese women dancing to it spread soon afterwards.[24] Police officers in India used versions of the song and its title to combat road rage and encourage bike riders to wear helmets. 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.[25][5] Top business schools like Indian Institutes of Management conducted studies to figure out the popularity of this song.[18] The song has inspired flashmobs in Chennai, Mumbai and Auckland, New Zealand.
The song was performed live by Dhanush in his first-ever live performance at the BIG Star Entertainment Awards 2011.[26]
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh invited Dhanush, for the dinner party along with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, in his New Delhi residence, India.[27]. The political parties Bharatiya Janata Party and Indian National Congress plan to use variants of the song in their campaigns for 2012 assembly elections.[28] [29].[30]
The song was named the Best Song of 2011 by CNN.
