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Saibal Chatterjee on his latest film Mr Prime Minister
The spirit and the charisma of the man that the entire nation once adored – and still does – are alive and kicking. As Dev Anand himself says, "Making films gives me a high. I feel blessed." Which explains why he continues to make films about issues of current import – the aftermath of 9/11, India’s film censorship mechanism, corporate greed, et al – despite repeated rejections at the box office. Mr Prime Minister, which opened in theatres at the fag end of last year, contains nothing that could turn it into one more defiant hurrah from a Bollywood great who will remain on his pedestal no matter how many misfires his career suffers. The film displays little that could be interpreted as hope of a revival of his waning grip on the medium and, like so many of his recent box office duds, it is destined to be forgotten. For all that, Mr Prime Minister is an interesting effort simply because it places on record what the veteran actor-director, who has always been known to have an active interest in the politics of the land, thinks about how India’s democracy is being run. It is another matter that how he articulates his vision reeks of outright ludicrousness. The film does not work either as a pop political treatise or as a simple drama because its situations and characters are far too contrived to make an impact. Dev Anand is Johnny Master, who hawks newspapers for a living. But he is actually a London millionaire with an Italian wife. The character played by Boman Irani, a political power broker, refers to the commonality this man shares with the late Rajiv Gandhi. That triggers twists and turns that are as ridiculous as everything else on offer, but there is much that one can cull from the goings-on. Indian democracy according to Dev Anand is in dire need of a dose of sanity. He speaks out against the ills of a multi-party system and upholds the good old two-party polarisation. He mouths predictable platitudes about the need for politicians to place the nation before their greed for power and pelf and, even more important, to keep religion, caste and region out of the electoral system. So, what does Mr Prime Minister really tell us? One, Dev Anand fans do not deserve this. Dev Anand himself deserves this even less. There are few Bollywood icons that can match the evergreen hero’s lustre but one more film like Mr Prime Minister and it will dim beyond recognition. But let’s not get into that. Even if Dev Anand continues to dump such monstrosities upon us, we will still have the glorious memories of the 1950s and 1960s to live by. Films like Nau Do Gyarah, Kala Pani, Kala Bazaar, Tere Ghar Ke Samne, Hum Dono, Jewel Thief and Hare Rama Hare Krishna will continue to remind us of the magic that Dev Anand was capable of conjuring up. It is probably a measure of the timelessness of Dev Anand’s appeal that he still manages to raise funds to make films when people half his age struggle unsuccessfully to mount a project. Mr Prime Minister, like Censor before it, might be a complete box office washout. But it is unlikely to stop Dev Anand in his tracks. He still dreams of new conquests and that keeps him going. Dev Anand made a special trip to the recently concluded International Film Festival of India in Goa to attend a party thrown by the French Ambassador. Although no formal announcement has been made yet, he is keen to enter into a co-production deal. Trust Dev Anand to keep looking beyond the vagaries of time, the boundaries of the nation and, above all, the ignominy of box office debacles. |
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WHAT
can one say about Dev Anand, octogenarian actor-director and Dadasaheb
Phalke award-winner, who refuses to call it a day?