Victoria & Abdul

As a lifelong anglophile, I have had an interest in British history so naturally a film about a little known piece of it would be of great interest to me. Telling the story of the last decade of Queen Victoria's life and the unlikely companion she took great interest in and their developing friendship was at turns both fascinating and an absolute joy to watch.

Abdul Karim (played by Ali Fazal) is picked to deliver a gift to Queen Victoria (played by Judi Dench) on the occasion of her Golden Jubilee. He travels to London along with Mohammad Bukish (played by Adeel Akhtar) and the two are coached on British Royal protocol during their long trip from Agra, India to England. Above all, they are instructed that they are not to look the Queen in the eye. Abdul can't help himself and their glances meet before he is quickly ushered out. However, Victoria decides she wishes for Abdul and Mohammad to continue to serve her throughout the duration of the Jubilee, which overjoys Abdul but Mohammad is less than thrilled as he is not enjoying the cold English weather. As Abdul and Victoria spend more time together, she becomes fascinated by his culture and wishes to know more, after all she is Empress of India. She appoints him her Munshi (teacher) and he begins to teach her Urdu and the Quran. As their friendship develops, both the incensed household, jealous of Abdul's quick ascension, and her eldest son Bertie, the future Edward VII (played by Eddie Izzard) conspire to get Abdul removed. 

Stephen Frears directed the film from a script by Lee Hall, who based the script on the non-fiction book by Shrabani Basu. Both Frears and Hall give the film a lighter touch than perhaps one would expect with the material and finding a lot of humor in everyday palace life as well as in Abdul and Mohammad's reactions to it (Mohammad, upon witnessing his first Royal dinner service remarks, "This is madness!"). But the film does still treat it's subject matter with the seriousness it requires, both in the household and Bertie's dislike of Abdul as well as the friendship between Victoria and Abdul, especially as she opens up to him more and reflecting on her long reign. 

The performances in the film are great as well, with Judi Dench reliably magnificent as Queen Victoria, who is sort of shuffling through life and not really engaged in being Queen and fairly disgusted with the state of her life, missing the people who have passed on before her and seeing her son Bertie as a total embarrassment. She finds herself wondering why she still goes on and on and worries about the future of her country. Then Abdul comes into her life and reignites her passions in a way she hadn't expected. Dench does a wonderful job playing this role and does a marvelous job of handling the softer sides of the role as well as the sterner parts, as evidenced when she finds out what her staff have been up to. Ali Fazal is fantastic as Abdul, giving such warmth and charisma to his role, it's easy to see why Victoria would be so taken with him. The two actors share such a wonderful chemistry with one another as well and play off one another beautifully. Their friendship is the cornerstone of the film and it works beautifully. It was fun to see Eddie Izzard, who I am a fan of for his stand up comedy, play a more serious role in this film as Victoria's son Bertie. I have to admit I laughed a little when I heard him mention "Church of England" at one point because my brain immediately went back to his famous "Cake or Death" routine, but that's probably just me.  Adeel Akhtar is great as Abdul's travel companion and friend Mohammad. He provides some nice comic relief in the film as well as having a great scene with Eddie Izzard, as Bertie is trying to dig up dirt on Abdul and Mohammed more or less tells him to piss off.   

Overall, Victoria & Abdul was quite good. It tells a bit of largely unknown British history and is directed, written and performed beautifully. The British probably know how to make these movies in their sleep by now and is by no means anything earth-shattering. But it is a wonderful film that I found it quite entertaining and engaging from beginning to end.