Wednesday 30 June 2010

Tamil Nadu's very own Shirley Temple, curls and all

In the dying days of my previous maid's tenure (don't ask) she got into the habit of bringing her pre-tween daughter to work. I loudly protested, refusing to have someone underage working under my roof, so the girl soon settled into a routine of curling up on my sofa, sometimes with a muesli bar in hand, flicking through the Tamil channels on the TataSky. Sometimes I would sit with her, tapping at my laptop, and she would point out people or things of interest that would appear.

And that is how I first became introduced to the wonder that is Kutty Pisasu.

Kutty Pisasu was the big Tamil children's film release of the school holidays which have just ended. Kutty Pisasu was big news for its use of cutting edge graphics and special effects. Not Avatar cutting edge, might I point out, more Roger Rabbit.

One day the girl came running into my bedroom to fetch me. "Kutty Pisasu is on, my favourite," she said excitedly, or at least that's what I figure she said as it was in Tamil. Out I went. There, on the screen, was a music video featuring a pudgy little boy dressed in a bright red cowboy outfit, dancing as if the bus would explode if he didn't. But his moves were strangely feminine, like he'd grown up imitating Madhuri Dixit in Dil To Pagal Hai, occasionally breaking into a round of urgent pelvic thrusting.

Next to him in almost every scene was a giant animated robot imitating his dance moves. Sometimes the boy would ride on the robot's shoulders, sometimes he'd be a passenger in a pumpkin coach driven by the robot. Clearly the robot was the Robin to his Batman, the Donkey to his Shrek, the Hobbes to his Calvin.

Of course, it took a lot of Googling to identify the film, but I got there. Turns out, the boy is in fact a girl: Baby Keerthika, a Tamil child dancing prodigy who literally slipped out of the womb hip-thrusting and arm-waving.

Finally a video's been posted on YouTube. This isn't the original clip that sent me into convulsions of laughter, prompting strange looks from the girl, but is quite close and will give you a thorough appreciation of Kutty Pisasu.



9 comments:

ephemerette said...

I can see why you thought she was a little boy! I could only manage about 2 mins of that before simply watching that dancing wore me out...

Sanand said...

This is my 1st time on your blog and I found it very witty and interesting, following now.

ephemerette said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
ephemerette said...

Hello, just popping back in to say I really enjoy reading your blog and I've awarded you a versatile blogger award over on ephemerette x

desiderata said...

Thanks ephemerette! Now I have to find out what that is....

Poppy Gets a Life said...

Haha! That is really a girl?!! Bizarre. No wonder you were in stitches.

And did you notice the strange inclusion of an Eiffle Tower mid way through the film? Very odd.

Poppy xox

bridebug said...

Woah! That's a bit scary isn't it! Thanks for sharing though :-)

Anonymous said...

That video has been removed... can you post another?

desiderata said...

Updated. Thanks Dave for alerting me.