Judi Dench as Queen Victoria and Ali Fazal as Abdul Karim
VICTORIA & ABDUL
Film Review by Marlene Ardoin
The true story of Queen Victoria and Abdul Karim is used to illustrate every facet of ageism, racism and sexism as it existed in Victorian England.
In 1887, Karim meets Queen Victoria when she is 68 years old, and has been queen for fifty years. She was tired, bored and ready to die.
As I see it, Karim was not about to let that happen, not on his watch. It was a time when sexual liaisons were popular, but I do not think that this was what was happening.
Her eldest son, and heir apparent, Edward VII, was a notorious womanizer, and probably assumed this of his mother.
What attracted Queen Victoria to Abdul Karim, was his positivity, devotion and kindness to her. Karim was the son that she wished she had.
Reading the history of this era, I discover that there was bad blood between Victoria and her son, Edward VII.
Two weeks after Edward was reprimanded by his father for being a womanizer, the Queen’s beloved husband, Albert, dies. This is not something a wife or mother forgets.
After her husband Albert’s death, with whom she bore nine children, Queen Victoria expressed her deep grief by wearing black for the rest of her life.
With Karim by her side, Queen Victoria gets a second wind, and becomes a popular, benevolent mother figure to her subjects and to Karim for another 14 years.
The argument of which culture was the more civilized of the two, English or Muslim, is another part of this film.
Edward VII is anxious to take over the throne. Here’s where the ageism part comes in.
Edward tries everything under the sun to make that happen, short of taking a gun to her head.
After thirteen years of service, Karim takes a year off to return to India. When he returns, he finds Queen Victoria is markedly aged and feeble. She dies three months later.
The kind and considerate queen did make provisions for Karim. She arranged for him to be given property and a pension in India, which director Stephen Frears and writer Lee Hall did not mentioned in the film.
Karim’s estate was in Agra, where his family resided until the Indian independence.
Karim died eight years after the queen, he did not have any children.
While this film was being made, there were protesters in Agra. They tried to stop the resurrection of the statue of Queen Victoria, which was taken down after the independence revolution.
This is a fascinating story and I am so glad I was able to catch it.
Judi Dench deserves to get a best actress nomination for her role in “Victoria & Abdul.”
Queen Victoria Bio:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Victoria
Abdul Karim (the Munshi) Bio:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdul_Karim_(the_Munshi)
Edward VII’s Bio:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_VII
Right wing group stalls shoot of Ali Fazal’s ‘Victoria and Abdul’ in Agra over Queen Victoria’s statue:
Queen Victoria and the Munshi in 1893.
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12/3/2017 # Victoria & Abdul