ABSTRACT
Given the fact that MGR and RK are more image-conscious than their respective contemporaries, they are seen to appropriate all available narrative devices, not merely for the purpose of expert story-telling, but primarily as vehicles of effective image-building. For this reason, the way they employ these devices is more functional than aesthetic. The most commonly deployed ones are, surprisingly, the very ‘easily disposable’ ‘non-story’ components having little direct bearing on the fi lm’s story but exerting an enormous infl uence over the exercise of image-construction.1 Of these, stunts, double-roles, comedy, songs, punch dialogues, mini-narratives, dramatic entry and end clips are discussed below.
