Ponnamma, the National Award winning Malayalam film actress known for her roles as mother in Malayalam cinema . She was 96. She died in a private hospital on 21st February 2011 evening. She was suffering from health problems for the last few weeks.
She has won the National Award and is widely described as a mother figure in Malayalam cinema.
Born-March 22, 1914
Aranmula, Kerala, India
Died-February 21, 2011 (aged 96)
Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India
Occupation-Actor
Years active-1943 - 2003
Parents-Malethu Kesava Pillai
Parukutty Amma
Aranmula Ponnamma was born as one of five children of Malethu Kesava Pillai and Parukutty Amma in Aranmula, Pathanamthitta, Travancore. She started her career at the age of 12 as a Carnatic music vocalist. She began by singing before meetings organised by the Hindu Mahamandal on the banks of the Pampa river. At the age of 15, she was appointed as a music teacher in a primary school in Pala, before starting to teach in the senior classes. Later she joined the first batch of students at the Swati Tirunal Music Academy. After the course, she was appointed as the music teacher in Cotton Hill Girls' High School in Trivandrum.
Ponnamma's acting debut happened only when she became 29, in a play titled Bhagyalakshmi opposite Augustine Joseph, father of renowned singer K.J. Yesudas. She went on to act in some more popular plays, before debuting in films. She debut role was that of the mother of the character played by Miss Kumari, a prominemt actress at that time in Sasidharan(1950).The same year she did another mother role in the Thikkurissy Sukumaran Nair starrer Amma, which was the first film of noted producer T.E. Vasudevan and also the 18th Malayalam film. She soon got typecasted in mother roles.
Awards
Ponnamma received the State and National awards for best supporting actress for her performance in Kathapurushan(1995), directed by Adoor Gopalakrishnan. She was awarded the J.C. Daniel Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2006.