Victoria & Abdul (2017)

Ali Fazal: Abdul Karim

Photos 

Quotes 

• Abdul Karim : Listen, little drop, give yourself up without regret and in return you will gain the ocean. Give yourself away and in the great sea you will be secure.

• Queen Victoria : Everyone I love has died and I just go on and on. What is the point?

  Abdul Karim : Service, Your Majesty. We are here for a greater purpose.

• [as Queen Victoria reaches for her stamp, Abdul grabs it for her instead] 

  Queen Victoria : Thank you, Mr...

  Abdul Karim : Abdul. Abdul Karim.

  [Queen Victoria continues to write her letters] 

  Abdul Karim : I am always writing.

  [Queen Victoria looks at him] 

  Abdul Karim : In India, I'm writing, a-all day, every day.

  Queen Victoria : So in India, you are not a servant?

  Abdul Karim : No. In India, I'm writing in my very big book.

  Queen Victoria : You're writing a book?

  Abdul Karim : Yes. I'm writing every name, who they are, what they have done. This is my life. Every day, I'm writing, from morning to night.

  Queen Victoria : And this is fiction?

  Abdul Karim : No. It is the very truth.

  Queen Victoria : I don't understand. If you are an author, why are you here, uh, presenting me with the m... uh, with the m...

  Abdul Karim : Mo-Mohur.

  [Queen Victoria nods] 

  Abdul Karim : It is my humble privilege to serve Her Majesty.

  [Queen Victoria smiles, then continues to write her letters] 

  Abdul Karim : I was the one who chose your carpets.

  Queen Victoria : Carpets?

  Abdul Karim : Yes. The Viceroy asked Mr. Tyler, sir, but actually, it was me. Y-you have to have a very good eye for the carpets. Uh, like...

  [walks to the carpet in front of the desk] 

  Abdul Karim : This is a very nice one, for example. Very, very tight knots. The art of carpets, uh, came to India from Persia with the great Emperor Akbar. The s-skill of a carpet is to bring all the different kinds of threads together and weave something we can all stand on.

  Queen Victoria : You seem to know a great deal about it.

  Abdul Karim : My family were carpet makers, but now I write in the book. Life is like a carpet. We weave in and out to make a pattern.

  Queen Victoria : That is a very beautiful image.

  Abdul Karim : Look. Here is the bird of freedom, caught forever in the design.

  Queen Victoria : So, in India, you are a poet?

  Abdul Karim : No. In India, I make a ledger of the prisoners.

  Queen Victoria : We are all prisoners, Mr. Karim.

• Sir Henry Ponsonby : To celebrate the completion of the Durbar Room, a little surprise, Your Majesty.

  [Queen Victoria is presented with a mango in a box] 

  Queen Victoria : What is it?

  Sir Henry Ponsonby : A mango, Your Majesty.

  Abdul Karim : One moment, Your Majesty.

  [Abdul looks at the mango and presses it, some juice sticking to his finger] 

  Abdul Karim : Uh, it-it's... off.

  Queen Victoria : Sir Henry, this mango is off.

  [servant closes the mango box and backs away] 

  Sir Henry Ponsonby : I-I'm terribly sorry, Your Majesty.