Dharmesena Pathiraja's only Tamil language film, Ponmani (Younger Sister) is about a starkly different socio-economic culture and political climate. Set in the northern city of Jaffna, it traces the fortunes and concerns of an economically depleted upper caste, lower middle class family. An evocative film about land, women, romance and tragedy, narrated in an idiom of understatement.
Piyal is a handsome young teacher who is hired to teach English to Nanda, a member of a high class family. They fall in love, but can't elope because Piyal is of a lower class. Nanda's parents instead push her into a marriage with Jinadasa, who is of the same class as them. With economic downturn in Sri Lanka, both families lose their status and Jinadasa leaves to try to make a better life for himself; he never achieves his goal and dies penniless. Piyal and Nanda can now finally come together. They have changed however, and the earlier idylic nature of their relationship is not recaptured.
Three young men have to face the realities of adult life as they move on from youthful frolicking to battle issues of unemployment, restlessness and the allure of the city. Two of them, Jaye and Gune, unlike their other friend who finds both a job and a wife, have only each other for company, In search of quick and easy money, they fall into hands of a scheming network of underworld figures.They become hustlers and decide to outwit their contact.
