Dev Anand with Khursheed in London. Telegraph picture

London, Nov. 28: Sonia Gandhi and the Congress do not need to get too bothered about Dev Anand?s latest movie, Mr Prime Minister, which he described to The Telegraph today as ?a satire on the Indian political system?.

With his sense of youthful mischief, the veteran actor/director has given the film an Italian connection.

Despite rumours in India, no one plays Sonia Gandhi in the film. But the prime ministerial candidate in the film, played by Dev Anand himself, has an Italian wife.

The role is portrayed by a young British and American educated Parsee woman, who now lives in Mumbai with her father, a Tata executive ? her name is Khursheed N. Khurody.

She has the requisite features and olive skin necessary to be able to play the prime ministerial candidate?s Italian wife, which is as far as the Italian connection goes.

In the movie, husband and wife meet while the former is an Indian tourist wandering round the ruins of Pompeii and spots a pretty local girl in a hat ? and pursues her and eventually marries her.

Dev Anand and Khursheed, the name she has adopted for cinema, are in London to shoot some of the British sequences in the film. One was at Stanstead airport in Essex ? on the way an Indian attendant?s mouth fell open when Dev Anand?s car pulled into a garage for petrol (?You are Dev Anand?? ?Yes, I am but I am in a terrible hurry?).

At the airport, passengers crowded around to see a Bollywood film being shot.

At a more serious level, Dev Anand is using the film to make some political points. One is that reducing the number of Indian political parties, which he feels encourages wheeling and dealing and buying and selling of MPs, would drastically reduce corruption.

?With more than 20 parties in India, anybody can become Prime Minister if he can buy enough MPs and get the casting vote,? argued Dev Anand. ?The multi-party system is wrong. There are two, three parties in England, there are two parties in America, why should India have a multi-party system??

His story is about an Indian billionaire in London, a Mr Prem Batra, not unlike Lakshmi Mittal, who flies into Gujarat ?incognito? to check what use is being made of his charitable donations.

?The day he reaches Gujarat, an earthquake takes place and he gets buried underneath and for three days he is underneath,? disclosed Dev Anand. ?He gets a mental shock and the moment he comes out, he does not know who he is.?

The film has been shot on location in Bachao, which was badly affected by the Gujarat quake in 2001. The victim, known simply as ?Johnny Masters?, lives in the village for three years, becomes very popular, forms his own party, Hum Sab (We all), contests the general election and does very well.

The idea for the film came to the actor ?in a flash? when the recent election results were being announced.

?My picture starts with the announcement of elections 2004 and ends when the results are declared,? explained Dev Anand. ?The story takes place within the span of 25 days.?

He added: ?I am playing Mr Prime Minister and Boman Irani is playing a wheeler dealer in Parliament who has won six elections, and we have three others playing politicians ? Prem Chopra, Mohan Joshi and Anant Yog.?

The character of Johnny Masters reflects Dev Anand?s personal philosophy: ?He advocates a two-party system, not a multi-party system ? that?s what the movie is all about. That is the way I feel about things. I think society is divided into two halves ? the rich and the poor. It should not be based on caste, creed, religion, anybody?s personal name. The country is nobody?s monopoly.?

He went on: ?Once Johnny Masters wins, all the people who have lost gang up against him and kidnap him and they torture him. While being tortured he gets back his memory. He knows who he is, he can buy the whole Parliament.?

Billionaire Prem Batra flies home to London for an emotional reunion with his wife. He is pursued by the BBC, which tells the world that Batra is now in a position to form the next Indian government.

Batra pretends to corrupt MPs who approach him that he is willing to pay for their support but at the crunch meeting, the billionaire pulls out and castigates those assembled by giving them a piece of his mind.

?He tells them off that this is not the way things should be done,? said Dev Anand, explaining the climax.

?If you want to be Prime Minister you have to have your own mandate and not (get the post) through corrupt practices. If corruption starts from the very base of Gangotri, then the whole country is corrupt. He returns to the village with his wife, decides to stay there and adopts a little boy. The titles roll, saying, ?Mrs Gandhi forms the government?. He says, ?I will wait my turn to form the government because my turn will come soon.? Don?t you think this is a good plot??