Cuckoo

Biography

Cukoo (also credited as Cuckoo) (circa 1929 - 1981) was an Anglo-Indian dancer and actress in Indian cinema. Cukoo was one of the major song and dance performers in Bollywood films from the late 1940s and 1950s. However she never achieved the stardom of the other successful actresses in her era like Nargis, Madhubala and Nadira. She usually only played secondary roles as the friend of the leading female characters or played a dancer in the film's song sequences. She appeared in many notable classic films in the late 1940s and 1950s such as Andaz (1949), Awaara (1951), Aan (1952) and Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi (1958). Her last film appearance was in Mujhe Jeene Do (1963) and nothing is known of what she did after retirement from films. She died in 1981. Little to no other information is publicly known about her personal life, not even her real name, birth date, or exactly how or when she died. Cukoo was a family friend of the Anglo-Burmese dancer and actress Helen. Cukoo helped launch Helen's Bollywood career by finding her jobs as a chorus dancer in the films Shabistan and Awaara (1951). Cucko and Helen most notably appeared in song and dance sequences together for films like Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi.