{"id":18290,"date":"2017-10-04T14:57:35","date_gmt":"2017-10-04T20:57:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flovalleynews.com\/?p=18290"},"modified":"2017-10-04T14:57:35","modified_gmt":"2017-10-04T20:57:35","slug":"victoria-abdul-oscar-worthy-period-drama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/?p=18290","title":{"rendered":"“Victoria & Abdul”: Oscar-Worthy Period Drama"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Queen<\/a>
Queen Victoria, Empress of India, (Judi Dench) and her humble subject Abdul Karim (Ali Fazal).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Sandra Olmsted<\/h3>\n

Director Stephen Frears\u2019 account of the real life friendship between Queen Victoria, Empress of India, (Judi Dench) and her humble subject Abdul Karim (Ali Fazal), a Muslim clerk, reveals historical events that only recently came to light.<\/p>\n

Similar to the relationship chronicled in John Madden’s Mrs. Brown (1997), the Queen\u2019s friendship with Abdul, who her court sees as inappropriate, deals not only again with class and cultural divides, but makes the audience wonder if these friendships were a pattern of behavior for Queen Victoria and if other such stories may emerge.<\/p>\n

After a brief opening in India which shows Abdul being selected to present a token coin to India\u2019s sovereign, the film shifts to a cantankerous Queen Victoria, who feels she has out lived all those she loves. While being hoisted, prodded, briefed, and dressed for her royal duties and by obstinately, and often rudely, wolfing down her food and dozing at the dinner table, she reveals her utter boredom and unhappiness.<\/p>\n

Then, it is time for Abdul and the spare presenter, Mohammed (Adeel Akhtar), to deliver India\u2019s gift. Although warned not to make eye contact with the Queen, Abdul is a charming rule breaker, and he catches the Queen\u2019s eye in more ways than one. Soon, Abdul and Mohammed find themselves official footmen to the Queen.<\/p>\n

While Abdul qualmlessly embraces Victoria being the Empress of India, Adeel presents the anti-imperialism view in his rants against the oppressor of India. Adeel\u2019s rants, unfortunately, are played more for comedy than theme. Adeel also wants nothing more than to return home; however, his desired escape from the horrible English climate is thwarted by Abdul\u2019s fast ascent from footman to the Queen\u2019s tutor, or munshi<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Since the aged Queen will never see India, despite being the Empress, Abdul provide\u2019s Victoria with a vision of Indian through mangos, carpets, Taj Mahal history, and Urdu language and philosophy. No friendship has threatened the royal court\u2019s influence over the Queen since the one with John Brown, and Bertie (Eddie Izzard), the heir-apparent, Henry Ponsberry (the late Tim Pigott-Smith), Lord Salisbury (Michael Gambon), and Dr. Reid (Paul Higgins) make the case that the Queen is in her dotage and for Abdul\u2019s removal. Can they out maneuver a woman, who although over 90, has endured the machinations of court since she was crowned at 18?<\/p>\n

Although based on Shrabani Basu\u2019s 2010 biography inspired by Queen Victoria’s handwritten notebooks in Urdu and by Karim\u2019s private journals, screenwriter Lee Hall and Frears take poetic license with the subject matter and draw heavily on the story of Victoria and Brown. Aside from the ill-fated humor regarding imperialism, there are comic moments regarding the \u201cscratchiness\u201d of Scotland and Bertie\u2019s lack of favor with his mother.<\/p>\n

A well-done period dramas, Victoria and Abdul<\/em> is the film to see and expect Oscar nods for. Rated PG-13 for some thematic elements and language and running a fair paced 112 minutes, Victoria and Abdu<\/em>l, a Focus Features release, is in theaters now<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

PHOTO CAPTION: \u00a0 Queen Victoria, Empress of India, (Judi Dench<\/strong>) and her humble subject Abdul Karim (Ali Fazal<\/strong>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sandra Olmsted Director Stephen Frears\u2019 account of the real life friendship between Queen Victoria, Empress of India, (Judi Dench) and her humble subject Abdul Karim (Ali Fazal), a Muslim clerk, reveals historical events that only recently came to light. Similar to the relationship chronicled in John Madden’s Mrs. Brown (1997), the Queen\u2019s friendship with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,13,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columnists","category-entertainment-travel","category-movie-reviews","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n"Victoria & Abdul": Oscar-Worthy Period Drama - flovalleynews.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/?p=18290\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\""Victoria & Abdul": Oscar-Worthy Period Drama - flovalleynews.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Sandra Olmsted Director Stephen Frears\u2019 account of the real life friendship between Queen Victoria, Empress of India, (Judi Dench) and her humble subject Abdul Karim (Ali Fazal), a Muslim clerk, reveals historical events that only recently came to light. 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