Film Review - Victoria and Abdul (PG)

What CAN they be talking about?

Here we go - one more beautifully-embalmed heritage film to sell abroad, was my uncharitable reaction when I saw the trailer for Victoria and Abdul. But then the film upended my prejudices rather effectively, and entertained me into the bargain. It does have Judi Dench in it after all. How could I have doubted? 

However it's not Dame Judi's input, superb though she is, that initially impressed me. This is a fine-looking movie, but the finery only serves to emphasise how deeply satirical it is. 

Based on Shrabani Basu's novel of the same name, Victoria and Abdul digs out one of those previously lost, too-weird-to-be-true nuggets of history and tells it with style. Abdul Karim is a lowly young clerk in the Indian city of Agra, when he is plucked from his job and sent overseas to England to carry out a single function at Queen Victoria's golden jubilee celebration. But the queen is taken with Abdul, an unlikely friendship sparks, and he becomes drawn steadily further into her life and confidence. Such a relationship (and you'll know this if you've seen Dench's original outing as Victoria in Mrs Brown) can only cause disapproval in the wider royal household, and dissent begins to brew...

More than anything this film is deeply funny, much of the humour stemming from the po-faced commitment with which the royal servants carry out their duties. Even before the Queen makes her first appearance we see the vast machinery of the monarchy in operation, the visiting 'Hindu' delegation caught up in it with utter bewilderment. The director/cinematographer team of Stephen Frears and Danny Cohen create the same lavish feel as they did in Florence Foster Jenkins, once again underlining the absurd pomposity of what is actually going on. 

At the centre of proceedings is Dench as Victoria - cantankerous and deeply bored by all that surrounds her. As in Mrs Brown, to which this film acts as a kind of sequel, her face and voice are magnificently expressive, suggesting great wells of emotion beneath. When the script allows her to cut loose with irony and self-knowledge, it's a joy to watch.

The story's central relationship is charming in its simplicity, Ali Fazal playing Abdul as wise yet curiously guileless, and unflinchingly stoic in the face of prejudice. The friendship's bizarre nature is stressed further by being set within the context of the anti-British sentiment simmering back in India. Meanwhile an array of great supporting performances (Olivia Williams, the late Tim Pigott-Smith, The Thick of It's Paul Higgins) convey the ill-concealed horror with which these new best pals are viewed. Eddie Izzard is particularly enjoyable as Victoria's disgruntled son Bertie, the Prince of Wales. And stirring the pot is the always wonderful Adeel Akhtar (The Big Sick), as Abdul's bitter, put-upon friend Mohammed. 

Victoria and Abdul turns out to be a smart and subversive film, its period gloss doing little to disguise how much it laughs at the entire concepts of monarchy and empire. Virtually the entire royal entourage is portrayed as envious and petty. It's also (like The King's Speech) a hymn to friendship, demonstrating that the real thing can cut through all kinds of barrier - in this case social status, race, religion, age and gender. Full of heartbreak and humour, this is a film likely to surprise. It certainly surprised me.

Gut Reaction: Laughter, anger and - unexpectedly - moistening of the eyes.

Ed's Verdict: Full of genuinely savage mockery, this is also a film with a tender and unusual love story at its heart.