Panathottam

Selvam is arrested on a false charge of passing counterfeit bills. He escapes and tries to put his hands on the real authors, that is, the leader of the band of the counterfeiters to be exonerated. His quest gets complicated when Natarajan, a firm policeman, dashes in his pursuit, convinced of his guilt.

• M. G. Ramachandran as Selvam
• B. Saroja Devi as Kala
• Sheela as Meena
• S. V. Subbaiah as Ponnambalam
• M. N. Nambiar as Chidambaram
• S. A. Ashokan as Inspector Natarajan
• M. V. Rajamma as Thangamma
• C. Lakshmi Rajyam
• Nagesh as C. K. Ramu
• Karikol Raju as Raju
• A. Veerappan as Ramu's friend
• V. P. S. Mani
• Thirupathisamy

Panathottam is named after the book of the same name by C. N. Annadurai. Saroja Devi, despite limited availability, agreed to act in the film and finished her portions within 9 days. This was the first film where Ramachandran and Nagesh acted together, although they do not share any scenes. The climax began filming one day at 7:00am, and ended the next day at 7:00pm.

The music was composed by Viswanathan-Ramamoorthy, with lyrics by Kannadasan. The song "Pesuvathu Kiliya" is based on Bilaskhani Todi raga. It contains multiple references to Ramachandran's vital stats through its lyrics "Paaduvadhu kaviyaa illai, paarivallal magana; Seranukku uravaa senthamizhar nilava"; the line "Seranukku uravaa" refers to Ramachandran's place of birth Kerala, "paari vallal" references his perceived generous nature, and "senthamizhar" gives emphasis to Ramachandran's Tamil pride.