-

VICTORIA&ABDUL MOVIE  STORY LINE:-
                                                                              In her latter years, Victoria, the Queen of England and Empress of India (Judi Dench), found solace in the company of an Indian clerk Abdul Karim (Ali Fazal), who went on to become her Urdu teacher, spiritual adviser and closest confidant. Based on Shrabani Basu's book on this extraordinary true story, the film takes a bittersweet look at this little-known friendship that caused a furore within the royal household
REVIEW:-
                   Stephen Frears begins his film by taking us through the monotonous routine of Queen Victoria as she goes around meeting her social obligations during her Golden Jubilee year (1887). During one such royal gatherings, she glances upon Abdul, a wide-eyed Indian boy, who presents her the ceremonial coin (mohur). Despite being warned against looking at her, Abdul's childish intrigue makes him stare back at her and flash a nervous smile when their eyes meet, amidst a sea of exasperated privileged people. Abdul's accidental defiance and indifference to protocol, liberates the queen emotionally, who is a prisoner by her own means. Evidently, a 'Hindoo' attendant's rising influence on the queen, rattles members and servants of the royal family, who later discover that he's Muslim

At 82, Judi Dench arrests your attention with her unwavering screen presence and eyes that exude a myriad of emotions - mischief, melancholy, loneliness and longing. She humanises her character effortlessly. Your heart goes out to the ageing monarch as she engages in introspection on a quiet, windy day and tells Abdul, "Everyone I've loved has died, and I just go on and on." Dench is the reason why this fascinating story refuses to seem like a 'scandal'..

Making the most of this incredible opportunity, Ali Fazal holds his own in front of a legend (Dench). Frears smartly uses Ali's raw, nervous energy and enthusiasm and infuses it in Abdul, organically. However, his one-dimensional portrayal of the munshi, leaves a lot to imagination and thus unexplained. Why was an Indian so devoted to the Queen of England, who ruled his country? (He even happily kisses her feet). Was he naive or just an opportunist? What was he like as a person? The narrative reduces Abdul to being a mere spectator and that's its biggest flaw. Also, the film falters as it abruptly changes gear and transforms into a tedious tragedy from a cross-cultural comedy.

Despite an uneven narrative and historical inaccuracies, Victoria and Abdul is a delightful film that deserves to be watched for Judi Dench.

Review master rating ;3/5

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Aval movie review

-
Image
Aval movie cast :.         Siddharth, Andrea Jeremiah, Anisha Angelina Victor Aval movie director: Milind Rau The advent of horror comedies has seemingly reduced the interest in filmmakers in the south Indian industry to make a full-length horror film that could make audience cower in their seats biting their nails while trying to look away from the screens. An honest terror-inducing film from the rarely explored horror genre in Tamil cinema had been long overdue. And Aval is here to fill that void. Director Milind Rau and actor Siddharth, who has also co-written Aval, has whipped up a bold and smart horror film that grabs you by your throat and retains its firm grip until the end. The suffering of two families haunted by ghosts and the people who try to help them is set in the backdrop of beautiful landscapes of Himachal Pradesh and it’s 2017. The seed for the story was sowed during the 1930s. Dr Krishna (Siddharth), a successful brain surgeon and...
Read more

AN INSIGNIFICAANT MAN MOVIE FULL REVIEW

-
Image
An insignificant man movie review:-                                                      Funded by India's biggest crowdfunding campaign and Sundance, An Insignificant Man is a non-fiction political thriller following ArvindKejriwal& the AamAadmi Party, during the 2013 Delhi election campaign. The film goes behind closed doors of the new party, as it tries to shake up Indian politics, while struggling to keep it's own idealism alive.                                                                The mark of a good documentary is that you forget that the events unfolding on the screen are not fiction. An Insignificant Man achieves that and even surpasses it. ArvindKejriwal become...
Read more

Blade runner 2019 movie review

-
Image
Blade Runner 2049 Story: Thirty years after the events of the first film, a new blade runner, LAPD Officer K (Ryan Gosling), unearths a long-buried secret that has the potential to plunge what is left of society into chaos. K's discovery leads him on a quest to find Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), a former bladerunner who has been missing for 30 years. Blade Runner 2049 Review:  It would be easy to accuse Hollywood of making another massive cash grab by revisiting Ridley Scott's sci-fi cult classic 'Blade Runner'. 35 years after the original in 1982, what other reason would there be for going back to that unique world? Turns out that it's the one that made the most sense - to tell a great story helmed by a masterful storyteller. Denis Villeneuve is fast approaching the upper echelons of modern-day directors, and his vision here is so well-defined and executed that it wouldn't be a far stretch to say he has already arrived. This is not just a ...
Read more