Why this Kolaveri Di? It’s better to dump it in gutters

HOW can one hide bizarre? Simple! Just kick raise a cacophony of brouhaha and you can effectively hide anything and everything however bizarre they might be. No doubt it has in it an element of Fascist philosophy perfected so well by the lieutenants of Adolf Hitler. But it is effective. And that was exactly what we saw in the case of the Tamil song, Why this Kolaveri Di. Hidden behind the high-pitched cacophony of brouhaha, the song — Why this Kolaveri Di — laid a national shame and it remained largely out of the sight of people who went gaga over it. I regret the manner in which our Prime Minister Manmohan Singh commended the song to the visiting Japanese PM, Yoshihiko Noda, as a shinning illustration of India’s growing soft power. Alas! Even an educated and a discernable individual like our prime minister failed to see through the song (if we can at all call it one).

If Why this Kolaveri Di is cited as an example of India’s growing soft power, why not then we confer the highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna, to cricketer Sachin Tendulkar even after playing selfish cricket and scoring 99 international centuries that embellished his personal record only or Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who at least made Indians and India proud by winning the ICC World Cup?

I wonder why couldn’t our prime minister project our masala film industry of Bollywood as an example of India’s soft power. After all, it has sold India well in the world for years.

I don’t know if Manmohan Singh will ever regret commending Why this Kolaveri Di but as much of the decibels have dissipated truth pertaining to the Tamil Song is increasingly becoming visible. Why this Kolaveri Di, which apparently means “Killer rage,” is in essence an extremely obnoxious statement steeped deeply in racism and sexism.

Why this Kolaveri Di, if properly translated and understood, means, “Why do you have this murderous rage against me girl”. It is heavily biased against women, who in the song are shamelessly blamed for everything that goes wrong in love and relations between men and women.

In being blatantly discriminatory against women, the song sung by Dhanush smacks of male chauvinism and ought to have been dumped into the gutters with disdain rather than getting over 10 million hits on Youtube alone.

It is a roguish soup song which has gone far beyond what William Shakespeare’s misogynistic comment made through Hamlet: “Frailty thy name is woman”. Both Dhanush and Shakespeare have shown their criminal bias against women and evoke our repulsion.

Noted lyricist Javed Akhtar has slammed the song. He tweeted: “KOLAVARI-D”. Every one is praising the robes but the emperor is naked. Tune ordinary, singing substandard. Words an insult to sensibility. Akhtar is right and has hit the nail on the head. The song, lacing any intrinsic merit, is a horrific aberration with its repetitive rhythm, lack of sophistication and random use of roadside slangs.

Yet, it has been a runaway success. Its popularity has not been surprising and neither is its shooting up to instant fame inexplicable. The soup song appealed to popular emotions in a country like India where the society still remains, very regrettably, extremely male dominated and where women are still largely looked down upon as inferior Homo sapiens — in fact, the root of all troubles, even evils.

Why this Kolaveri Di, actually reflects a grotesque element of the Indian society where female foetus are still killed before they see the light of the world. In India, discrimination against women is still chilling. They — mostly in rural India — are still denied education, considered to be a procreative factory and slaves in the houses of their parents and in-laws. Why this Kolaveri Di, is a despicable illustration of collective Indian male psyche. To showcase this song to a visiting foreign dignitary as an example of India’s soft skill is equally appalling.

No wonder then that this pugnacious soup song has found a massive audience in Indian neighbourhood where too, the society has remained frozen in medieval ages even in the 21st century in its attitude towards women.

A local group in Pakistan, inspired by Why this Kolaveri Di, has come up with a variation of the song called Democracy Ji. The Pakistani version, however, is not a soup song but a political satire — a satirical commentary of the political situation prevailing in the country. In a way, the Pakistani variant is an improvement of the song that Danush sang. Predictably, Why this Kolaveri Di has evoked some backlash from women in India who have lately come out with their answer to the vitriolic song of Dhanush. In the version that women have come up with, That’s why Kolaveri Kolaveri Di, the girls have hit back with vengeance and have exposed the male hypocrisy and how men too indiscriminately cheat women.

That’s why Kolaveri Kolaveri Di, too, is gaining in popularity. It has already secured at least 800,000 hits since it was uploaded on Youtube on December 21. The girls’ song is becoming a befitting slap song to Dhanush’s soup song.

The fight has begun and let it rage. Dhanush needs to be slapped and shown the mirror. He has painted the Indian society in the darkest of hues and most so the Tamil society where discrimination against girls is perhaps one of the highest in the country.

The author is the Opinion Editor of Times of Oman