However, the definitive cultural shift occurred with Neelakuyil (The Blue Cuckoo, 1954). For the first time, a Malayalam film dealt with the raw, untamed reality of caste discrimination and poverty in a Keralan village. The camera lingered not on painted backdrops but on the red earth, the thatched roofs, and the sweaty labour of the working class. This was the moment Malayalam cinema stopped trying to be "Indian" and allowed itself to be .