The epitome of motherhood in Malayalam cinema through the decades, Kaviyoor Ponnamma, a veteran adored by generations of film lovers, passed away on Friday, September 20. The 80-year-old actor was under treatment for cancer at a hospital in Kochi.
Beginning her career in the early stages of Malayalam cinema, Ponnamma had acted in hundreds of films and with many passing generations until she became too ill to work. She was most famously known for playing mother to leading actors of different generations, from Prem Nazir, who was many years her senior, to Mohanlal and Mammootty in the 80s and 90s and later to younger stars like Prithviraj.
Her pairing with Mohanlal as mother and son is cited as one of the favourite duos of Mollywood. Among the most popular of her characters are the mother who overhears her son make a drunken call for a woman’s number and morosely arranges their meeting in Adhipan, the mother who etches an evening prayer in her son’s mind before tragically passing away in Kizhakkunarum Pakshi, the woman with mental illness who takes an imposter musician for her long lost son in His Highness Abdulla, and the mother-like figure who asks a sacrifice of Mohanlal’s character for her son in Thenmavin Kombathu. For this last performance, and for several others, Kaviyoor Ponnamma won the Kerala State film award for best second (female) actor.
Some of her other noticeable characters came in Thinkalazhcha Nalla Divasam, Kireedam, Sandesham, Amma Ammayiamma, Nandanam, Ammakkilikoodu and so on. Her last film performance was another unforgettable one in Aanum Pennum where she paired opposite Nedumudi Venu to play a mischievous old couple having cruel fun at the expense of a younger one.
Ponnamma had come to cinema from theatre, debuting on stage for Thoppil Bhasi’s Mooladhanam as a teenager. Even as she came to films as a young woman, she began playing mother to men many years older than her including Sathyan, Nazir and Madhu. One of the few song sequences she performed in came in Sathyan’s Odayil Ninnu – ‘Amabalakulangare’, where as a young woman she is teased for falling in love. But even in this one, she soon fades into the background as the aging mother of a girl that grows into a demanding young woman.
Through the years, Kaviyoor’s mother characters had stood apart from the trope of sidelined mothers who’d barely be visible along the overshadowing father characters. Her tone carried an authority even as it was markedly affectionate. Even if she got stereotyped as the all-bearing, mother of infinite love, who obliged the norms and never went against the tide, Ponnamma’s characters could not be ignored. The expressions merged love with anger, tears with hatred, and the voice was as smooth as it was powerful. Her flexibility was proven when she adapted to the workings of new age cinema in Aashiq Abu's segment of Aanum Pennum. Undoubtedly, Ponnamma would have merged into newer ways of cinema much easier than her contemporaries.