Honestly, I had never heard of Abdul Karim or his friendship with Queen Victoria until I watched the trailer of this film. Intrigued by this secret friendship, I was more than eager to watch the film, and I did so promptly the week it released.
A fascinating tale about the Queen Empress and her servant turned Munshi, Victoria and Abdul does start off very promisingly, thanks to the extremely talented Judi Dench as an aging Queen Victoria and Ali Fazal as Munshi Abdul Karim. However with a not so impressive script, there is only so much Dame Dench could do to save the film. While it was easy to connect with Victoria, thanks to the countless books and movies made on the Queen Empress, it was hard to connect with the Munshi’s character, of whom very little is known. The fact that the writers did not bother to spend much time to establish his character or the true relation between the Queen and her Munshi, makes Victoria & Abdul a bland watch.
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