THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The mortal remains of Aranmula Ponnamma, Malayalam cinema’s revered mother, were consigned to flames at Santhi Kavadam, Thycaud, in the presence of a huge gathering of friends, relatives and fraternal members on Tuesday evening. She died on Monday evening at a private hospital here.
The body was kept for the public to pay their last respects at the Tagore Theatre from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Revenue Minister K P Rajendran, Law Minister M Vijayakumar, Congress leader V M Sudheeran, Kerala Congress leader K M Mani and CMP leader C P John, personalities from the film field and cultural sphere, and the public paid tributes to Ponnamma who became synonymous with the mother image for Malayalees.
Ponnamma had started her career as a music teacher at the Cotton Hill School here and took to acting only at the age of 29 when she doubled up as singer and female lead in the play Bhagyalakshmi. After acting in a couple of dramas, she made her debut in films through the 1956 movie ‘Sasidharan’ in which she played mother to Miss Kumari.
She went on to be the screen mother of artistes several years her senior such as Thikkurissy Sukumaran Nair, Sathyan and Prem Nazir. In fact, Prem Nazir had once commented that he must have addressed Ponnamma as mother many times more than his own mother.
In the last movie she acted in, ‘Janadhipathyam’, Ponnamma donned the mother’s role for the character played by Suresh Gopi, who is married to her granddaughter Radhika.
An unfortunate mother in real life, she had survived the untimely deaths of both her daughter and son. She spent her last days with Radhika, Suresh Gopi and her great-grandchildren at their home in Sasthamangalam here.
She received the national award for the best supporting actress for her role in the Adoor Gopalakrishnan film Kathapurushan in 1995. The State Government honoured her in 2006 with the J C Daniel Award for lifetime achievement in films.