MR. PRIME MINISTER – FAR FROM IMPRESSIVE

Rating:- *

The problem with Dev Anand is that he is too convinced of his creativity, with the result that although his films (excepting one or two like “Des Pardes” and “Hare Rama Hare Krishna”don’t leave much of an impression. MR. PRIME MINISTER can also classify into the 'typical Dev Anand film' and one comes across a jaded effort by an amateur.

Johnny Master [Dev Anand] is a well-read elderly person selling newspapers in a small, earthquake-ravaged, but now reasonably rehabilitated township in Kutch. Johnny had in fact come out of the debris of the catastrophe after lying buried underneath for two days and nights.

The government declares elections. The sarpanch [Anjan Srivastava] and the residents of the township decide to form their own political party and make Johnny Master their chosen candidate for his forthright openness and honesty and his erudite educational background. They win hands down and Johnny becomes the people's elected representative in parliament.

However, his opponents in the elections [Prem Chopra, Mohan Joshi, Anant Jog] join hands and have him kidnapped and subsequently tortured by their henchmen [Shahbaaz Khan and stooges]. In a very cruel and dastardly act of torture inflicted on him, Johnny Master regains his memory only to discover that he is Prem Batra, the richest Indian residing in England. And on the very day of his arrival in India, he had become a victim of the earthquake tragedy.

He declares his real self to the kidnappers, buys them over and goes back to England as Prem Batra, only to realize that he is also in a position to buy over the corrupt lot of politicians elected to parliament.

Dev Anand has penned the script himself besides directing the film and in both the vital departments it looks like a slipshod piece of work. Bappi Lahiri's music is another sore point. The rap song before the end credits also looks forced. Cinematography [Chaman K. Baju] is alright.

A Dev Anand film gives minimal scope to other actors to stand on their feet. Dev Anand takes the maximum footage himself and the camera follows him from start to end. Tara Sharma is okay, while Dev Gill is fair. The film has a number of characters [Milind Gunaji, Mohan Joshi, Prem Chopra, Anant Jog, Anjan Srivastava and Boman Irani], but all get eclipsed in a Dev Anand enterprise. If only Dev Anand had overcome his weakness to keep himself in the spotlight most of the time in his films, his film would have left a better mark.