Frears’ latest is a cloth-eared Gunga Din tale, painted up as a chaste romance and charting the true (but never convincing) friendship between Queen Victoria and a young Indian Muslim. Our nominal hero is Abdul Karim (Ali Fazal), plucked out of Agra to present HRH with a commemorative coin at a golden jubilee banquet. More dubiously, it seems intent on casting Queen Victoria, the bastion of empire, as some progressive outrider, railing against white racists. Victoria & Abdul belongs with the duds. What a peculiarly dodgy, conservative film this is – a lazy salute to a good queen and her faithful Indian servant.

Source: The Guardian September 03, 2017 16:01 UTC