The curious friendship between Queen Victoria and her Indian servant Abdul Karim. Radhika Sanghani. It was on a family trip to Osborne House on the Isle of Wight that Shrabani Basu discovered a secret that had lain untold since Queen Victoria's death. The Indian journalist had taken her two teenage daughters with her to the former Queen's palatial holiday home to witness the restored Durbar Room; an original banquet hall. As Basu wandered through the house's Indian wing, she couldn't help notice several portraits and a bust of an Indian servant called Abdul Karim. He was holding a book, looking sideways. Something about that expression struck me, and when I moved along, I saw another portrait of him looking rather gentle. ![]() The first trailer for Judi Dench's Victoria & Abdul features the unlikely friendship between the Queen of England and a servant from India. The British royal will grace the silver screen this fall. Watch the official trailer for "Victoria and Abdul" here. The extraordinary true story of an unexpected friendship in the later years of Queen Victoria's (Academy Award winner Judi Dench) remarkable rule. When Abdul Karim. Victoria & Abdul ein Film von Stephen Frears mit Judi Dench, Ali Fazal. Inhaltsangabe: Im Jahr 1887 feiert die britische Königin Victoria (Judi Dench) mit einem. Watch the first trailer for 'Victoria And Abdul,' starring Judi Dench as Queen Victoria and Ali Fazal as her Indian footman and confidant. It was very unusual. Based on Basu's book Victoria & Abdul, republished this week, it brings to life the relationship that caused such controversy that upon Queen Victoria's death, her family tried to erase the story of Abdul entirely. The many letters that the pair wrote to each other were burned, and the mention of him in the Queen's own journals were edited out by her daughter, Beatrice. References to Abdul by other historians were brief, and had him painted as a . She read through. Queen writing about Hindustani lessons in Balmoral, visiting Abdul when he was ill, and visits to take tea with his wife - who she had granted permission to come from India to join him - and see their cat's new kittens. Her passion for India was obvious, from her desperate wish to eat a mango to her view of the Karims as her equals. It showed a completely different side to the Queen's life than had been previously recorded. After the Queen's death, Abdul returned to Agra, and it was here where Basu found a ruined mausoleum which would have once been studded with gems and rubies. His inscriptions still lay engraved on the tombstone. It became a passion. Within a few months, it had taken over my life. I mean, it was the Queen and a young Muslim man - what's not to be curious about? The more and more I got into it, it became more and more gripping. There, locked up in a trunk in their attic, were Abdul's untouched personal journals. They detailed his story of coming to England aged 2. Queen's household, but was actually just a glorified . He tells the Queen, but she asks him to stay, saying she enjoys his company and wants to learn Hindustani from him. She found letters from the Queen where she signs off as . Two Indian servants came - one she describes as very short, very dark and she describes Abdul as handsome. It's important she goes for the tall handsome one. Everyone else kept their distance from her, even her own children, and this young Indian came with an innocence about him. He told her about India, his family and was there to listen when she complained about her own family. She writes to Abdul about his wife's difficulty in conceiving, advising: . He is part of the . She told them this is not acceptable. She was definitely ahead of her time. It's delightful and funny, but it's also sad and, more than anything, it's a reflection of the times they lived in.
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