The King's Speech

There are so many movies that just don’t see the light of the day in India. Sadly, some of them are works of sheer brilliance. And I am not sure if it is sheer coincidence but most of these movies are British. I had the good fortune of seeing one such movie 2 days back – The King’s Speech.

Prince Albert Fredrick Arthur Geroge (Colin Firth) in 1925 goes onto become King George VI in the late 30s. But he has a problem of public speaking and stammering in general. Something that cannot get him a long way if he has to lead a country. His first attempt at speaking in public ends in a complete disaster when he is supposed to speak at the closing ceremony of the Annual Empire Exhibition – the first time any public address was to be broadcast on radio. Quite an embarrassing situation to be in and something that forces him and Princess Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter) to seek medical help. A variety of doctors try their best to make things work but the Prince’s temper and inability to cope with the weird methods don’t really help. Nine years go by.

In 1934, On the advise of an acquaintance, the Princess, posing as a Mrs. Johnson (the name used by the Prince during the First World War) contacts Lionel Logue (Sir Geoffrey Rush), a speech therapist of high repute. Lionel works in a place which is definitely not suited for royalty and that too without a receptionist – sacrilegious!!! He is an Australian by birth but moves to England post the war to make the most of his skill to get people over speech defects. He is willing to take on the assignment but wants “The patient” to come over to his clinic. Even after knowing, quite embarrassingly, that he is conversing with the Duchess of York and the would be Queen of England. My Castle, My Rules as he proudly proclaims. After a bit of deliberation and much against his wishes, the Prince agrees to go through one final attempt at therapy. The attempt doesn’t have a great start but Logue does hand over a recording of a paragraph from Hamlet that he gets the Prince to read while he is listening to loud music over headphones – the latest technology at that time. It is only much later, after yet another debacle that the Prince actually listens to the recording and is quite shocked to hear himself speak so well. He returns to Logue to be treated.

The King’s Speech traces the friendship that King George VI and Lionel Logue build over their experience of ridding the King of his disability. It is garnished with fabulous British humour and most importantly, splendid performances from Colin Firth, Sir Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham Carter – all three of which are in line for nominations at this year’s Oscars. Even the piece meal performances from Jennifer Ehle as the wife of Lionel Logue and Timothy Spall as Winston Churchill are absolutely outstanding. This one is a movie for demonstrating acting talent from some of the best known names in the industry. Director Tom Hooper must be a very fortunate man to have worked with some of the most natural actors possible. Also notable is the outstanding effort in editing from Tariq Anwar. All in all one of the best movies of the year. Hope it releases in India soon – I hadn’t seen the trailers before I left. 8 on 10 for sure.