Ravichandran & Major Sundarrajan Movies Together List — 5 Films

The shape of the work

The 1960s account for 60% of everything they made together. The 1960s belonged to Motor Sundaram Pillai; the 1970s to Malathi. Ravichandran acted in every film; Major Sundarrajan acted in all of them. Strictly Tamil cinema — they never crossed industries together.

Partnership facts

• Director A. P. Nagarajan cast Ravichandran and Major Sundarrajan together for the first time in 'Motor Sundaram Pillai' (1966) because he wanted a sharp contrast — Ravichandran's urban cool against Sundarrajan's earthy, comic timing. Sundarrajan was initially hesitant, thinking his stage background wouldn't fit the film's modern tone.
• In 'Adhey Kangal' (1967), Sundarrajan would deliberately flub his lines during rehearsals to make Ravichandran laugh, breaking his co-star's serious on-set demeanor. Ravichandran later admitted this loosened him up and helped him deliver a more natural performance in the film's tense courtroom scenes.
• Their double-act in 'Thanga Thambi' (1967) directly inspired the template for the 'comic sidekick vs straight man' pairing that became a staple in Tamil cinema through the 1970s — most notably copied by the duo of Sivaji Ganesan and Nagesh in later films.
• On the sets of 'Malathi' (1970), Ravichandran and Sundarrajan shared a single room in a lodge near the shooting location. Sundarrajan would wake up at 4 AM to practice his lines aloud, and Ravichandran — a night owl — would grumble but later said he secretly admired the discipline.
• Ravichandran once told a magazine: 'Sundarrajan made me look good. He took the silly lines, I took the serious ones. He never complained once.' He said this in a 1972 interview with 'Kalki' magazine, reflecting on their last film together, 'Justice Viswanathan'.
• After 'Justice Viswanathan' (1971), the two never spoke again. No public fight — Ravichandran simply moved to higher-budget productions, and Sundarrajan, hurt by the silence, never reached out. Their families only reconciled decades later at a film industry function in 1998.