Today, as I sat down to watch some TV, the first ad I saw had me cringing. It was an ad for pickles (Aachi). They had used an old Tamizh song "Thottu Kollava..." as the background. If you have not seen the ad, watch it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbwBfVjjnds&feature=related
Why was I cringing? Well, they had this handsome hulk giving you a sidey smile as he sang "Thottu kollava.. "! A very small percentage of Tamilians use the term "Thottukka" to refer to the side dish accompanying the main dish. Now, if I am told that we are having sambhar and rice for dinner, I will probably ask "Thottukka Yenna irrukku?" The answer is usually the name of the subzi that was made. If you are eating curd rice, pickle is usually the answer. Thus, the idea for this ad, I think. However, literally translated, it means "What is available for me to touch?" And from the guy's expression, it looks like he means it literally - Naturally, I am cringing at the double meaning! So when he is singing "Thottu Kollava..." with sidey grins and glances, he is probably singing it literally to the heroine and not so literally to the pickle jar.
Well, if we are going to look at it literally, I vote for the big bad wolf singing this song to Little Red Riding Hood. Makes it less of a double meaning and kinda more believable - don't you think?
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