Almost her entire acting career, Ponnamma appeared as a typical Malayali mother – with a sandal paste mark on her forehead, holy basil leaf on grey hair, attired in the traditional white ‘mundu’ and ‘neriyathu’ and reciting prayers for her children on verandah of the house. However, before she was typecast in this role, Ponnamma had enacted diverse characters during the early phase of her career in theatre and movies. In fact, she had excelled in such roles too.
Ponnamma was also keen to take up roles of different shades, such as the comedy character Dolly Lakshmi with Adoor Bhasi in ‘Atom Bomb’ (1969). Similarly, she was the villainess in Vincent’s ‘Triveni’. At the start of her acting career, Ponnamma earned appreciation as the lead actress in dramas such as ‘Altaara’, ‘Doctor’, ‘Janani Janmabhumi’ and ‘Puthiya Akasam Puthiya Bhoomi’.
Moreover, all leading directors of her time utilized Ponnamma’s talent and they included P N Menon, M T Vasudevan Nair, Vincent, Sethumadhavan, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Ramu Kariat, John Abraham, Padmarajan and Mohan. Among Ponnamma’s major offbeat roles in movies, the following stood out: the rough character Tharathi who leads a difficult life in a brick kiln in the movie ‘Karakanakadal’; Kadathukadavil Parvathy, a coir worker who wears colourful blouses and glass bangles in ‘Triveni’; Communist activist Pattalam Bhavani in ‘Crossbelt’; Savithri Varasyar in ‘Nellu’; Kamalamma in ‘Kodiyett.