(Judi
Dench & Ali Fazal)
If your appetite for England’s glitteringly
costumed colonial past remains keen, Stephen Frears’s latest movie should be
just the biscuit. (Review by Patrick Compton - 7)
England’s heritage industry shows no signs
of flagging and Queen Victoria, 116 years dead, is still ringing up cash tills
on TV and in movie houses around the world.
If your appetite for England’s glitteringly
costumed colonial past remains keen, Stephen Frears’s latest movie should be
just the biscuit. Following on from John Madden’s Mrs Brown (1997), Victoria
and Abdul tells the very similar (true) tale of Victoria’s last
servant/suitor during the final years of her life.
This Working Title/BBC Films movie is
adapted by Lee Hall (Billy Elliot) from Shrabani Basu’s book which makes use of
the personal diaries of Abdul Karim which have only recently been unearthed.
It was a no-brainer for Frears to cast Judi
Dench in the role of the queen, particularly after she had so memorably played
the same part opposite Billy Connolly in Mrs
Brown.
She is, predictably, superb as the
initially sour, bossy and greedy monarch who has reached a dismal stage in her
life where all the people she loved are dead and she finds herself surrounded
by family and courtiers who seem impatient to be rid of her.
The early scenes show her during her Golden
Jubilee in 1887 when she first meets the handsome Abdul (Ali Fazal), a clerk
who has been sent over from India to deliver a gift to commemorate the
occasion. The queen’s behaviour at the state banquet eloquently indicates her
interest in eating (and sleeping) at the expense of conversation.
Abdul’s charm and (platonic) devotion, his
enticing talk of silk carpets, mangoes and the Taj Mahal, as well as his offer
to teach her Urdu, wins the lonely queen’s affections and she responds by
promoting him to becoming her “munshi” (teacher), a recognition that doesn’t go
down well with either her son, Bertie, or her jealous courtiers. Here the movie
claims that despite her imperialist position as Empress of India, Victoria had
no racist sentiments – unlike her courtiers.
The movie spends much of its time focusing
on the internecine warfare at court in which the courtiers are portrayed as
racist, intensely class conscious, pompous and conniving. Abdul, a Muslim, is
not above the odd lie to gain preferment, but his loyalty to the queen shines
through. If the movie does have a fault, it’s that the focus is too much on
Victoria and her court, and not enough on the character of the somewhat
enigmatic munshi which remains a little undeveloped.
The film has a distinguished cast of English
character actors – including the late Tim Pigott-Smith in one of his last roles
as Sir Henry Ponsonby, Michael Gambon as the Prime Minister, Lord Salisbury,
Olivia Williams as Baroness Churchill and Eddie Izzard as Bertie, Prince of
Wales – who all enjoy themselves and entertain us in their less than
sympathetic roles. Abdul’s reluctant sidekick, Mohammed, is particularly well
played by Adeel Akhtar.
One of the delights of these gleaming
heritage films is their sumptuous look and Alan Macdonald’s production design
and Consolata Boyle’s beautiful costumes are handsomely flagged as we follow
the queen and her court to locations such as Balmoral in Scotland and Osborne
House in the Isle of Wight.
Victoria
and Abdul opens in Durban on September 29, 2017 –
Patrick Compton.
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