Gana pattu is the folk song of urban dweller in Tamil Nadu — irreverent and lower class. Kolaveri di is an example of Gana pattu becoming mainstream, though in the process diluting its spirit to fit the mainstream. It is a subaltern genre that thrives in mid-1900s in harbour and its surroundings of central Chennai. It is without any inhibitions –from floating faeces to pretty woman. It is a gestalt of sweat and struggle, grass and booze, shit on the sheet and the posterier of the neighbour’s wife. It is the poetry of the streets. It could be compared to hip-hop — the songs of African-Americans. These conveyed their anger against injustice, and later became mainstream.