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At the end of her life, Queen Victoria befriends an Indian man who has come to present her with a medal and adopts him into the household.
Yeah. It's a well done film but there seemed to be something off about it.It's like a fantasy tale for Indians. And the coda at the end about this story only coming to light based on notebooks found in 2010 make me suspect it even more.
First off, Abdul is too good. Everything he does is special and wonderful and the Queen is immediately captivated. It's almost like she is under Abdul's spell. She learns urdu. She studies the Koran. Victoria makes Abdul her spiritual advisor. Naturally the household is in an uproar about being supplanted by the brown man.
The depictions of life in Victoria's court are stunning. The hundreds of servants catering to her whims seemed like a set dressing nightmare. There were points of great hilarity and great fear for Abdul's life.
But again. It felt too fantastical to me. But it is every well done.
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01-20-2020, 09:39 PM
(This post was last modified: 01-20-2020, 09:52 PM by Drunk Monk.)
This seemed fantastical yet you accept the MCU? WTH?
We watched this over two nights. The first half was funny and charming. Then the next night, we were eager to finish it but by chance, we had stopped when the tone of the film turns into a total bum out. Kind of a downer. It's really all about Judi. She's magnificent in this, as always, nailing every scene with such a sophisticated portrayal. Abdul was weak - a shallowly depicted character and it's never revealed if he was a manipulator or what his real motivations were. His buddy was better.
Both Stacy and I thought we saw this but realized upon watching it that it was some other version of the same story, and we've been racking our brains to remember what that was. I know I got part of this story when I reviewed those queen of Jhansi flicks and took a deep dive into this period of history (see
http://www.brotherhoodofdoom.com/doomFor...p?tid=5157 &
http://www.brotherhoodofdoom.com/doomFor...p?tid=5158) but Stacy didn't watch those with me. I think both V & A were depicted in both films, but they kinda blurred together in my memory. So WTH was it? Driving me nuts. I reviewed my reviews here and could not find it. And I review everything I see here. I review films professionally and DOOM, as always, is a whetstone to sharpen my axe.
HP1 = Dumbledore. No sword fights but there is some ceremonial sword wearing. Not particularly DOOM recommended unless you really like Judi (which is understandable). See that Manikarnika flick and I think you'll get a taste of this tale from the complete other perspective.
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01-21-2020, 06:34 AM
(This post was last modified: 01-21-2020, 06:35 AM by Greg.)
This movie to me had almost the same plot as Mrs. Brown. Where Judi Dench plays Queen Victoria and Billy Connoly plays here loyal servant, except rather than a Muslim, her most trusted servant is a Scot. It was odd that Victoria had two of these same types of characters in her life.
MCU for life!
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I don't think that was it. I'd say it was another of my false memories, but Stacy confirms it. It's those Queen of Jhansi movies that are really jamming me on this.
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How long will Stacy continue to Gaslight you?
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01-21-2020, 11:05 AM
(This post was last modified: 01-21-2020, 11:06 AM by Drunk Monk.)
the rest of my life surely...
...if i'm lucky enough.
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