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Cuckoo

Cuckoo in Mashal (1950)

Cuckoo was perhaps the first of the most well known dancing queens of Indian Cinema. Her predecessors were many, including a dancer called Azurie, who it is said Cuckoo modeled herself on. But in terms of the sheer body of work and its impact, Cuckoo would have to be the first among Hindi cinema’s dancing queens. It was with her that “cabaret” became an almost indispensable part of films made between the 1950s and 1970s.

It was 1944. The talkies were already around for 15 years. Devika Rani and Shobana Samarth had already established their glowing presence but it was still a time when nice girls didn’t even become leading ladies, let alone do roles where they had to wriggle their hips — however tastefully — and bare flesh, which at the time meant shoulders and maybe a bit of leg. At such a time, a pretty, fresh-faced Anglo-Indian girl with eyes that danced as enchantingly as her feet appeared in two films — “Pehli Nazar” (in which Mukesh made his debut with “Dil Jalta hai toh jalne de”) and “Mujrim.” The girl’s name in the film’s credits was listed simply as “Cuckoo.”

Like a lot of the history of early Hindi cinema, Cuckoo remains in the shadows and little is known about her or even her real name. Except that her always graceful, sometimes languorous, sometimes naughty, but always seductive screen presence became a must that drew in the audiences for almost 20 years. Her debut in 1944 was an instant hit and in the space of just the next five years, she had appeared in an incredible 49 films, including Mehboob Khan’s “Anokhi Ada” (1948), H. S. Rawail’s “Patanga” (1949) and Devendra Goel’s “Aankhen” (1950). The only major filmmaker of the time who did not feature Cuckoo in his films was V. Shantaram. In a lot of her films, her role was just a song but its impact was so electrifying that distributors considered it almost as indispensable as the heroine. Like the Helen-Asha combination later on, in many of these songs, Cuckoo’s screen `voice’ was Shamshad Begum. Together, they were responsible for some unforgettable hits.

Mehboob Khan’s films proved to be the turning points in Cuckoo’s career. Her dance numbers in his Anokhi Ada established her as the leading dancer of the time; and Andaz, a romantic melodrama featuring Raj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar, and Nargis, gave the dancer an opportunity to showcase her acting skills.

Cuckoo remained the top dancer of Hindi films till she was displaced by Helen and such dancer-actresses as Vyjayanthimala. Ironically, it was Cuckoo who had initiated a 13-year-old Helen into films as a chorus dancer.

Cuckoo continued to dance until the beginning of the 1960s, the last few years as part of the chorus.

Did you know?

It has been recently confirmed that Cuckoo’s real name was Cuckoo Moray.

Cuckoo died a slow lingering death, penniless and unattended.

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