Film Report Cultura Estadounidense 45720 Sergio Luis Bravo Flores.

Victoria and Abdul. (2017)

This story is set in England in 1887 and is about the friendship between Queen
Victoria and an Indian named Abdul. The film begins by introducing Abdul and his
journey from India to England. In order to present a tribute to the Queen from India.
Abdul gains Queen Victoria's trust and becomes a very close servant and later her
friend. Basically, the whole film revolves around this friendship and shows how
Queen Victoria's days were with Abdul.
The film has many historical features of the time but they are not explained,
however, knowing these details in depth gives us a better understanding of what
was going on at the time. Queen Victoria, as mentioned in the film, ruled over five
continents and over a billion people. Her reign, known as the Victorian era, is the
second-longest reign of the English crown at over 63 years, second only to
Elizabeth current Queen of England. The event at which Victoria meets Abdul is
the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of Victoria's reign, known as Queen
Victoria's Golden Jubilee. Victoria received from Abdul and another Indian man a
pair of coins representing Victoria's sovereignty in India, where she was empress.
Abdul was an Indian man who unlike most Indians was not a Hindu, but a Muslim
and whose language was Urdu, not Hindi, although it should be remembered that
at that time India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh were part of the British Raj. After
gaining the Queen's confidence, Abdul taught Victoria his religion and language
and became known as "munshi", which in Urdu means clerk or teacher. The
friendship that Victoria and Abdul had caused them many problems with other
royals, and this is shown throughout the film, as they were always spying on
Victoria and Abdul.
One of the most striking aspects of this film is the costumes, the scenery and in
general, the places that were used for filming, the film was nominated for several
awards for this reason. The Victorian era not only marked the clothing of the
people is also reflected in architecture, literature, and politics. During most of the
film Queen Victoria wears black and the reason is that after the death of her
husband Albert in 1861, Victoria began rigorous mourning.
Something I found very interesting was that the queen did not know what a mango
was and of course, had never tasted one. Abdul tells her that the mango is the
queen of fruits and describes the taste, so Queen Victoria asks for mango as she is
the Empress of India and mangoes grow there. I thought about it later, the mango
is a tropical fruit that was not known in Europe at that time, but it was in India
where it is in fact the national fruit. When Queen Victoria receives her mango from
India it is overripe or in poor condition and the reason is quite obvious at that time
the journeys from India to England were quite long and time-consuming, and the
ripening process of the mango is only a few days, after that, it is overripe and starts
to rot.
Film Report Cultura Estadounidense 45720 Sergio Luis Bravo Flores.

The film is very good and in my case I had already seen it, I found the title really
interesting. This relationship of the queen with Abdul, which in the end we don't
know if it was just friendship or something more, has been a source of concern for
several years. We may not know it, all records of Victoria and Abdul's friendship
were suppressed by the English crown, but I think that's what makes the film
interesting.