Second time that Judi Dench takes on a role of Queen Victoria and it kind of serves as a natural sequel to her previous turn in "Mrs Brown". It seems that Queen Victoria in her widowhood was eternally prickly and difficult, perhaps as a result of being surrounded by courtiers her whole life - at this point, she is extremely old and even more insensitive, as illustrated in the scene where elegant lunch ends the moment elderly queen finishes her plate - she simply stuff herself and voilà, the meal is done, no matter that other people were still eating, the plates are taken away. Her long-suffering son and future Edward VII (Eddie Izzard) have to walk the line and accept that as long mammy lives, she is the boss. By chance, elderly queen spots Abdul (Ali Fazal) amongst delegation from India and selects him to be her own personal secretary - to consternation of her courtiers, she also develops interest in Qur'an and eventually raises her new toy high above the position of servant, he is now to dine together with her guests because he is her Munshi (guardian). The more her courtiers press her, the more Victoria refuses to budge and she protects Abdul from hatred and prejudice with all her royal might - gradually it becomes clear that ageing and fragile queen won't live forever and once she is gone, there is no one to protect Abdul anymore.
The movie (based on a real historical facts and subsequent book by Shrabani Basu) gives a perfect spotlight to majestic Judi Dench who even at this late stage must be one of the best actresses we have: hers is a sensitive look at the ravages of old age, where body is frail but the mind is still sharp. When her huffing and puffing son Prince of Wales (feeling humiliated by this new favourite) threatens his mother with proclaiming her insane, she responds with such dangerous fury that everybody just bows down.
This queen might be old, but she still is powerful and can intimidate her subjects into accepting whatever caprices she has, her word being the law. The script (Lee Hall) has very sentimental view at this unlikely friendship - queen is simply lonely and she loves refreshing friendship with her new Indian friend - although personally, my impression is that Victoria didn't care so much for racial injustice or prejudices as much she loved to flaunt Abdul in front of her stuffy courtiers and probably secretly enjoyed elevating him just to annoy everybody. This is very clear from the role played by Ali Fazal - his Abdul is all starry-eyed at this magnificent opportunity and he readily kisses queen's feet and exclaims his gratitude for being amongst "glorious people of the British Empire" - I genuinely shuddered watching him fawning over Victoria and it must be noted that if she was tired of flattering courtiers, Abdul was just new addition to long line of opportunists. The script has it all under cellophane and presents their friendship as a gentle spiritual connection, though I see it differently, as a caprice of elderly queen who browbeat everybody in doing what pleased her. Once she was gone, Abdul was unceremoniously kicked in behind and ordered back to India, which is what we all expected - since I am cynic by nature, I assumed his sobs and tears were for loss of such elevated position in the royal household, but it might be that he truly imagined the queen being his friend and protector. Queen Victoria certainly wanted him back to India before its too late, unfortunately she couldn't protect him beyond the grave. Under the surface, the movie serves as interesting attempt to smooth out the racial injustice from colonial times.
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