Cuckoo (Tamil, 2014)

Hats off to writer-director Raju Murugan, for presenting a delightful tale of love. It is a very innovative attempt from the director to have himself narrating the story on screen. It surely enhances the appeal and the film unfolds like a novel. The producers also deserve a pat on the back for backing the original script and refraining from including any commercial elements.

‘Attakathi’ Dinesh who plays the protagonist, ‘Tamizh’, delivers the performance of a lifetime. One can imagine the amount of work that has gone into playing a visually challenged person with incredible authenticity. The same goes for young Malavika who plays ‘Sudhandhirakodi’. She expresses a gamut of emotions through her face and wins the audience over with her independent character. Their romance and chemistry are remarkable indeed.

All the supporting characters have played their part perfectly. The ones to note are the ‘Chandrababu’ look-alike owner of the music troupe, Tamizh’s close friend who is also visually challenged but delights with his one-liners, and the brother of Sudhandhirakodi’. Special mention to the ‘MGR’ look-alike who has no dialogues but still took enormous applause from the audience in the second half.

Santosh Narayanan’s BGM is spectacular and his songs have been shot well and used appropriately. Due credit also to Maestro Ilayaraja whose songs have been used intelligently across the first half. Just goes to show the timelessness of his tunes.