So, good old Funny Indian Lady sent me this song via those random e-mails we send our friends when something is extremely funny. FIL and I have many of these exchanges, that I appreciate deeply.
Anyway, I opened up my e-mail and this video appeared:
I do not know much Tamil (as I had initially suspected would be this song). However, it actually was pretty much in all English, with some Tamil mixed in between – Tanglish. I watched this video thinking oh another find from my friend and shuffled it into my overloaded with media images in mind. Then, I saw articles about the song from India. ARTICLES. Even better, I did not realize that the singer was Sonu Nigam’s son, Nevaan Nigam.
I will say that the one line in the song in reference to white skin vs dark skin caused my inner anti-skin color shade superiority complex (and the basis of our blog name, Wheatish) to get riled up. Here’s the line from the lyrics:
“white skin-u girl-u girl-u/girl-u heart-u black-u/eyes-u eyes-u meet-u meet-u/my future dark”Then, I thought about it, and perhaps decided to be nice. I could take a positive spin on this line. He’s saying that the girl’s skin color may be beautiful according to social standards, but her heart sucks. So, I left it at that, and continued to listen to the song. Really it was just a silly boy talking about his issues with women. Universal. And darn, such a catchy beat. I listened to it on repeat.Heck, there’s even a Wikipediapage about it. And you know you’ve reached some level of temporary importance when it’s on Wikipedia. So, in terms of the actual story of the song, I’ll let you use your own fingers to learn more. Wikipedia told me that Why this Kolaveri Di translates to English as “Why This Murderous Rage, Girl.” I’ll take this translation with a grain of salt, but for now I am vulnerable due to my lack of knowledge of Tamil.Either way, what I really enjoyed about the video is that for once, Tamil music got some national respect in India (apparently it was aired on MTV India). Although I’m not sure how awesome that is given this song is Tanglish. Oh well, if you have not heard the buzz of this song, you have now! Happy Monday!
