Sarathkumar was seen in a dual role as the village chieftain and his younger brother in the 1994 cult rural drama, Nattamai, directed by KS Ravikumar.
Sarath was brilliant as the middle-aged married man, who gets into an affair with a woman, and later gets blackmailed for money in GVM's Pachaikili Muthucharam, an adaptation of the novel, Derailed.Sarath won several awards for his portrayal of the father-son duo in KS Ravikumar's 1998 drama, Natpukkaga, which was written by a then 17-year-old Jyothi Krishna.Sarathkumar famously played the father and son duo, yet again, in Vikraman's Suryavamsam, a feel-good film with quite some heartwarming moments.Sarath by now had almost patented the father-son dual role. In Ayya (2005), he played an MLA, who has been winning in his constituency for 35 years, & his civil engineer son. Nayanthara's Tamil debut.Sarathkumar, in a major departure from his rural roles, was seen as the commissioner of police in Chennaiyil Oru Naal, a drama that intertwined multiple stories around an organ transplant surgery.Sarath had his own 'Baasha' moments in his 2003 action drama, Arasu, which was about a mysterious temple accountant avenging the murder of his father (also played by Sarath, obviously!)Sarath played Suriyan, a smart security officer of the central ministry, who goes undercover after being accused of a minister's murder . Suriyan (1992) turned a trendsetter for action films in Tamil.The 1995 action drama, Coolie, is remembered for its chartbuster songs featuring Sarathkumar and Meena. The film marked the debut of Suresh Peters as a composer.One of the best crime thrillers of its time, RK Selvamani's Pulan Visaranai (1990s) featured Sarathkumar in his villainous best.A remake of the Malayalam comedy of the same name, Thenkasi Pattanam (2002) showed the comic side of Sarathkumar as an actor. His scenes with Vivek turned out to be a riot.In Oruvan (1999) Sarath played a man, who loses his family in an accident and tries to start his life afresh, but the past begins to haunt him, when he learns that his family was, in fact, murdered.Well before Vijayakanth, Sarathkumar played the Chinna Goundar in KS Ravikumar's Cheran Pandian (1991), another rural drama centred on relationships.Famous for its Vadivelu's 'Minnalu' comedy, Maayi (2000) had Sarathkumar play the titular character of a well-respected, village do-gooder.