Neelakuyil

Neelakuyil (English: The Blue Cuckoo; Malayalam: നീലക്കുയിൽ) is a 1954 Malayalam film jointly directed by P. Bhaskaran and Ramu Kariat. It is a neo-realistic melodrama and was based on a story written by Uroob who co-wrote the screenplay and dialogues along with P. Bhaskaran. Neelakuyil tells the story of the love affair of a Dalit girl and an educated, high caste school teacher. It stars Sathyan, Miss Kumari, Prema, P. Bhaskaran and Master Vipin. Many of the actors debuted through this film.

Neelakuyil was a landmark film in Malayalam cinema history that paved a new path for Malayalam cinema by breaking away from the earlier tradition of adapting plots from Hindi films for making Malayalam films, of which the story or the characters could never be identified with the culture of Kerala. Based on a story by famous Malayalam writer Uroob, Neelakuyil had dialogues with local accent, and the script’s hard-hitting dialogues flay social evils such as untouchability, feudalism, and injustice towards women. It features an acclaimed cinematography by A. Vincent and a successful musical score by K. Raghavan.[4] It won the All India Certificate of Merit for Best Feature Film, and the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Malayalam, thus becoming the first nationally recognized Malayalam film. The lead performances and the narrative style was also noted.

Most of its shooting was done outdoors and it captured images of the rural, agrarian Kerala, its vast paddy fields, the life of the peasants and the feudal society.