victoria and abdul a 130yearold story for our times
Last Updated : GMT 06:49:16
Arab Today, arab today
Arab Today, arab today
Last Updated : GMT 06:49:16
Arab Today, arab today

with his portrayal of Queen Victoria in his new film

Victoria and Abdul: a 130-year-old story for our times

Arab Today, arab today

Arab Today, arab today Victoria and Abdul: a 130-year-old story for our times

Grouchy, greedy and constipated
Venice - Arab Today

 Grouchy, greedy and constipated: nobody could accuse Stephen Frears of kowtowing with his portrayal of Queen Victoria in his new film "Victoria & Abdul", which premiered in Venice on Sunday.

The director, who won a string of awards for "The Queen," his 2006 depiction of Queen Elizabeth II in turmoil at the time of Princess Diana's death, returns to royal questions in a tale of the current British monarch's great, great grandmother's friendship with a young Indian Muslim, Abdul Karim, in the final years of her long reign.

Set at a time when the British Empire was at its peak and India was its "Jewel in the Crown", Frears' script lampoons the pomposity, arrogance and ignorance of the Imperial age.

But, he says, the convention-defying, cross-cultural relationship at its heart has resonance today, when Britain and India's relationship has been transformed but racism and Islamophobia linger.

"It was always meant to be funny," Frears said. "I thought, 'What film would Donald Trump most like to see?'."

Abdul, played by Ali Fazal, is a Indian Muslim prison clerk picked out, on the strength of his height and Victoria's liking for tall men, to be sent to London in 1887 to present the queen with a gold Mughal coin as part of celebrations to mark her golden jubilee.

It is supposed to be a fleeting visit on which, he is repeatedly told, he must above all avoid looking directly at his Empress, played by Judi Dench 20 years after her first turn as Victoria in "Mrs Brown".

It is an instruction Abdul flouts and having caught the sovereign's eye he is soon ensconced in the royal household, to the fury of her son Bertie, the future Edward VII, and a toadying clutch of buttoned-up courtiers and ladies-in-waiting who surround and stifle the monarch.

- Koran and poetry -

Indian actor Fazal said he had delved into history books to get a grasp of Abdul's unique experience.

"That time was so different and so essential to this fantastical little world that these two created at the middle of this massive British Empire," he said.

"The important thing was that we more or less humanised that era where there was protocol, there was racism and everything that we are still dealing with now."

The Victoria Abdul first encounters is frail and unhappy, a morbidly obese compulsive eater who is incapable of getting through her wolfed-down meals without smearing food across her face.

"I'm so lonely, everyone I've really loved has died and I just go on and on," she tells her new confidant, 30 years after the death of her husband Albert and four years after her later-life companion, Scottish gamekeeper John Brown, passed away.

Soon though she has recovered a glint in her eye as Abdul's presence gives her a new lease of life.

Dench said the offer to play Victoria again had been an "irresistible proposition".

"It is very, very complex her attitude to Abdul: not just a feeling of love, but the delight of being relaxed with someone without anyone around or any standing on ceremony."

Victoria and Abdul's bond strengthens as he teaches her Urdu and introduces her to the Koran and Indian poetry.

- Historical detective -

By this time the scandalised royal household is in open revolt, with the irascible Bertie (Eddie Izzard), playing chief mutineer, even threatening to have his mother certified insane.

Victoria stands her ground but with his protector ailing, it is clear Abdul's return to India is only a matter of time.

Abdul's story, and the remarkable fact that Victoria, who initially knew so little of India she had to ask him to describe a mango, learned sufficient Urdu to write letters in it, went untold for over a century, largely because of the efforts Bertie went to to destroy all evidence of it.

Traces survived however and some historical detective work by journalist Shrabani Basu brought the story back to life.

Her book, "Victoria & Abdul: The True Story of the Queen's Closest Confidant," was written after she discovered 13 of Victoria's journals which, because they had been written in the Urdu Abdul had taught her, had been overlooked by British historians.

She then tracked down, via a nephew of Karim's in Karachi, a diary that he had kept as well as some surviving correspondence between the two that had lain forgotten in the vaults of the Royal Archives.

The letters confirmed the degree of intimacy between the young man and the dying monarch.

Invariably sprinkled liberally with kisses, Victoria describes her protege in one as a "true friend."

Frears' film was shown outside of competition at the Venice festival where the director was due to receive a lifetime achievement award at a gala ceremony later Sunday.

source:AFP

arabstoday
arabstoday

Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

victoria and abdul a 130yearold story for our times victoria and abdul a 130yearold story for our times

 



Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

victoria and abdul a 130yearold story for our times victoria and abdul a 130yearold story for our times

 



GMT 12:47 2016 Thursday ,01 September

'La La Land' musical masterpiece dazzles Venice film fest

GMT 12:42 2017 Monday ,20 February

Dalia al-Behairy begins 'Yawmiyat Zoga Mafrosa'

GMT 19:01 2017 Wednesday ,30 August

Oil prices down as US reels from Harvey

GMT 04:19 2017 Monday ,08 May

National forces attack mercenaries in Taiz

GMT 19:21 2017 Sunday ,07 May

Iranian Film Week opens in Baghdad

GMT 21:33 2017 Sunday ,30 July

Arab Quartet meeting kicks off in Bahrain

GMT 17:17 2016 Friday ,07 October

Aleppo bleeds as US and Russia spar

GMT 12:03 2015 Monday ,21 December

Nepal protester killed in constitutional crisis clash

GMT 09:47 2016 Thursday ,22 December

Trump vows to cut F-35 spending, as leaked memo

GMT 21:44 2017 Friday ,15 December

King establishes Hawar Development Committee

GMT 20:57 2017 Tuesday ,16 May

Naval Forces rescue 23 tourists in Hurghada

GMT 12:56 2017 Monday ,11 December

Lyon leave it late, Balotelli with Nice winner

GMT 06:18 2017 Thursday ,19 October

Russian delegation meets with Julphar chairman

GMT 21:20 2017 Monday ,23 October

Nasr, delegation of London Stock Exchange

GMT 14:40 2012 Saturday ,10 March

Magdy Al-Galad steps down

GMT 09:47 2017 Sunday ,12 March

Cat Camp in New York attracts cat lovers

GMT 14:57 2016 Friday ,09 September

Madonna, Ritchie settle child custody dispute

GMT 23:52 2017 Monday ,18 September

UAE economic growth boosting logistics sector
Arab Today, arab today
 
 Arab Today Facebook,arab today facebook  Arab Today Twitter,arab today twitter Arab Today Rss,arab today rss  Arab Today Youtube,arab today youtube  Arab Today Youtube,arab today youtube

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday
arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday
arabstoday
بناية النخيل - رأس النبع _ خلف السفارة الفرنسية _بيروت - لبنان
arabstoday, Arabstoday, Arabstoday