ABSTRACT
Unlike MGR films which smartly co-text with corresponding political events, the fi lms of RK by and large employ the corrupt political system merely as a ‘context’ for his fi lmed narratives. This is so at least till the death of MGR in December 1987. His criticisms of the political system and the politicians appear to be politically motivated from 1988, a year marked by chaotic factionalism and frantic political activities caused primarily by the absence of MGR and the impending elections the following year (1989). RK’s comments, however, become deliberately political from 1995, again in the context of elections, this time preceding the one in 1996. His political intervention reaches its defi nite peak when he openly opposed the Paattaali Makkal Katchi (PMK) in 2004 elections. When that proved fatal, he withdrew from politics for good, though treating it as a context of his later narratives.
