Kaviyoor Ponnamma, the adorable Amma of Malayalam cinema, dies

KOCHI: Veteran Malayalam actor Kaviyoor Ponnamma (80), who donned the mother's role in most of her films, died at a private hospital here on Friday evening. She was under treatment for cancer since May last year and was in a critical condition for the past one week.

Hospital authorities said she had stage-4 cancer when diagnosed. "She was admitted on Sept 3 for further tests and treatment, but her situation worsened," its bulletin said. She breathed her last around 5.30pm.

Ponnamma had acted in around 700 movies in her career spanning more than six decades. Born in Kaviyoor, Pathanamthitta in 1945 to TP Damodaran and Gouri, she started her career as a singer with 'Pratibha Arts' theatre group at the age of 14. She was a disciple of popular musicians RLP Varma and Vechoor S Harihara Subramanya Aiyer.

She started her acting career with ‘Mooladhanam' drama by Thoppil Bhasi in the 1950s. Her debut in movies came in ‘Sreeeramapatabhishekam' (1965) in the role of Mandodhari against Kottarakara Sreedaran Nair as Ravana. She had also acted in Tamil movie ‘Sathya' and Telugu movie ‘Priyuralu'.

Ponnamma was also popular for her roles in over 25 television serials. ‘Manasi', ‘Akkarappacha', ‘Manthrakodi', ‘Ammathottil', ‘Aalilathali', etc., were some of her popular television serials. Anum Pennum, released in 2021, was her last movie. Ponnamma had won numerous awards, including the state govt awards for best second actor in 1971, 1972, 1973 and 1994.

Ponnamma, who was married to scriptwriter late Maniswami, is survived by daughter Bindu. For the past few months, she was staying with her brother's family in Kochi.

The mortal remains will be kept at Kalamassery municipal town hall on Saturday from 9am to 12pm for the public to pay homage. The funeral will be held on her house premises in Aluva around 4pm.