Victoria & Abdul

Victoria & Abdul

2017 "History's most unlikely friendship."
Victoria & Abdul
Victoria & Abdul

Victoria & Abdul

6.8 | 1h52m | PG-13 | en | Drama

Queen Victoria strikes up an unlikely friendship with a young Indian clerk named Abdul Karim.

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6.8 | 1h52m | PG-13 | en | Drama , History | More Info
Released: September. 22,2017 | Released Producted By: BBC Film , India Take One Productions Country: United States of America Budget: 0 Revenue: 0 Official Website: http://www.focusfeatures.com/victoriaandabdul/
Synopsis

Queen Victoria strikes up an unlikely friendship with a young Indian clerk named Abdul Karim.

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Cast

Judi Dench , Ali Fazal , Tim Pigott-Smith

Director

Sarah Finlay

Producted By

BBC Film , India Take One Productions

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Reviews

princessstrickland21 Dame Judy Dench does a marvelous job as Queen. This movie is based on truth. The story is about Queen Victoria making a friendship with her servant from India. I find it one of the best. Great acting as well as the story. Makes the story come to life of the queen.
azim_60616 Kinda insulting to IndianaKinda insulting to Indiana
tbs1-2 Absolutely loved this film! Dame Judi Dench lovingly portrayed Queen Victoria as an emotionally conflicted monarch.
sddavis63 In many ways, Victoria & Abdul feels almost like a sequel to 1997's "Mrs. Brown" - including the fact that Queen Victoria was played in both by Judi Dench. Dench was predictably superb in the role - it's not wrong to suggest that this was a role that she was born to play - and I have to say that while I enjoyed "Mrs. Brown," I actually thought that for a variety of reasons this was the better of the two movies. In spite of that fact this movie at times came across as light-hearted (perhaps a tinge of comedy-drama to it) it also, to me, seemed to have more depth to it - especially its sometimes under-stated but always very present reflection on British colonial attitudes toward India and race.Like "Mrs. Brown," "Victoria & Abdul" focuses on a most unlikely friendship. This is set late in Victoria's reign. She is elderly and she is lonely. She's been a widow for a long time (her beloved Albert having died almost 30 years before), she's largely estranged from her children and she's surrounded by courtiers and politicians but not friends. She's literally dragged out of bed every morning by her servants - and she's miserable; an old woman simply waiting to die. And into the midst of that comes Adbul Karim (played by Ali Fazal.) Brought to England to present a ceremonial Indian coin to the Queen, the two somehow strike up a friendship, and Abdul becomes almost like a son to her and becomes very committed to her in return. The movie doesn't really make clear what drew them to one another - which is perhaps appropriate, because the tension of the movie is the inability of everyone around her to understand why this relationship has developed. The best answer might be simply that Victoria needed someone, and one of Dench's masterful bits of work in this movie is her portrayal of the difference Abdul made in Victoria's life. Without Adbul, Dench presents Victoria as tired, disinterested, miserable - waiting to die basically. But with Abdul, Dench transforms the character into one that's alive and vibrant and curious - and enjoying her life. It was a very good performance. We can become too consumed by wanting an "explanation" and forget to simply celebrate the power of the connection the two developed. As Abdul rises (eventually Victoria names him her "munshi" - spiritual teacher - much to the chagrin of her court because he's a Muslim and she's the head of the Church of England) the court turns on both him and her because of the relationship.Unlike "Mrs. Brown" - which was interesting but had few real issues of substance to it - "Victoria & Abdul" does actually deal with real issues - especially the British attitude toward India and its people. It was often considered the crown jewel of the British Empire, and Victoria was delighted when she was granted the title of "Empress of India" (by Disraeli in the 1860's mind you and not by the people of India.) And yet the overwhelming British attitude toward Indians was racism and toward India was ignorance - attitudes shared by Queen Victoria, who knew nothing of this place she was so proud to be Empress of. India was another bit of pink (the colour always used for many years to denote the countries of the British Empire) on the map of the world to be exploited for the mother country. There are various ways in which this is pointed out - one of the best being the insistence of the British to refer to Abdul and his friend Mohammed (who made the journey to England with him) as "the Hindus" even though they were Muslim. The Queen's loneliness and isolation is also highlighted. There are a variety of ways of doing so. It's clear that she has a huge family - at her deathbed stands Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany (with whom Britain will be at war in less than 20 years) and who was actually Victoria's grandson. She is constantly surrounded by servants who take care of her every need. She is constantly speaking to politicians. But she's essentially alone. We may not know what caused her to bond with Adbul, but it's not hard to understand why she needed to bond with someone. In the end, the bond represented a threat to those around Victoria - especially her son and heir Bertie (who would become King Edward VII when she died) and who, upon his accession to the throne, finally gets his revenge on Abdul.This is a very well done movie. The performances are first rate, the story is interesting, the attempts at humour work. It drew me in and held me for its entire run time. (9/10)