Actor Kaviyoor Ponnamma.
| Picture Credit score: Satheesh Vellinezhi

Becoming right into a given function is a dream for any actor, however those that match too effectively into a job usually discover themselves forged in additional of the identical. For, they turn out to be that function, making it inconceivable for filmmakers to think about anybody else of their place. Actor Kaviyoor Ponnamma, who handed away on Friday on the age of 79, was one such actor. Over a six decade interval, she got here to embody the function of the mom in Malayalam cinema.

From first taking part in that function in her early twenties, typically as mom to actors elder to her, she performed mom to generations of actors from Prem Nazir onwards, in over 300 movies. However, regardless of being caught within the typecast roles, she explored each attainable shade of it, from the grieving mom to the scheming one and at instances the playful mom.

Within the crowd of latest reminiscence are forgotten her earlier memorable turns, like that of Narayani, the oracle’s spouse in M.T. Vasudevan Nair’s Nirmalyam (1973), who struggles to maintain a poverty-stricken household. The climactic sequence of the movie, by which the oracle spits at a goddess idol, remains to be spoken about, however main as much as that scene was Narayani’s outburst at him after poverty compelled her to do one thing dishonourable — “You’re the one who turned me into this state at this age. The fireside on this family remained unlit once you have been busy serving the goddess. When my kids went hungry, the goddess didn’t deliver both rice or cash.”

Memorable roles

That second, early in her profession, is likely to be probably the most subversive one in all hers on display screen, however coming a detailed second could be the function of the mom of Balan, performed by Mammootty, in Thaniyavarthanam (1987). In one of the crucial heartbreaking sequences of motherly love in Malayalam cinema, she offers a morsel of rice laced with poison to her son to forestall him from being branded as a lunatic and locked up by the superstitious relations. In Kodiyettam, she performed a single mom who eyes the protagonist Sekharankutty with a touch of need.

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Uncommon onscreen bond

However, it was with Mohanlal that she fashioned one of the crucial well-liked mother-son duos on display screen. From the mom of Sethu within the tragic Kireedam to the mother-like determine who calls for the character performed by Mohanlal to make a sacrifice for the sake of her personal son in Thenmavin Kombath, the 2 shared a really uncommon onscreen bond. In His Highness Abdullah (1990), her psychological sickness makes her assume him to be her personal lifeless son. Her function as Andrew’s mom, ready endlessly for her son, in In Harihar Nagar stays a painful reminiscence in a movie in any other case remembered for its humour.

Began as a singer

Younger Ponnamma’s singing expertise opened the doorways to cinema. As a 12-year-old, she started as a vocalist in Thoppil Bhasi’s play Mooladhanam. Quickly, she was requested to play the lead function within the basic play. After stints at numerous drama troupes, together with KPAC, she debuted in films with Sreerama Pattabhishekam (1962). Inside three years, she had one in all her first mom roles in Thommante Makkal, by which Sathyan and Madhu have been her sons. She gained the Kerala State Movie Award for Second Greatest Actor 4 instances.

Late in her profession, in one in all her final appearances on display screen, she and Nedumudi Venu performed a crooked couple in Aanum Pennum (2021). The Ponnamma we witnessed in that movie, with a touch of mischievous evilness, reminds us that possibly, Malayalam cinema didn’t totally utilise her potential by seeing simply the mom in her.