Written by: Haroon Shuaib
Posted on: March 20, 2023 | 
| 中文
Shahzad Latif as Kaz and Lily James as Zoe in What's Love Got to Do with It?
Shekhar Kapoor and Jemima Khan’s What’s Love Got to Do with It? is slotted as a romantic comedy, but that is precisely where the film didn’t deliver. It neither has romance nor comedy. Documentary filmmaker Zoe (Lily James) is a 20-something woman, vacillating between casual dating and being anxious about the dreadful possibility of never finding true love. She grew up with her mother Cath, a role played brilliantly by Emma Thompson. Living next door to Cath is a family of Pakistani origin, where a controlling mother Aisha Khan is essayed by Shabana Azmi. This family has a traumatic history of one of the scions marrying for love and getting cut off. No one in Azmi’s house is allowed to mention or talk about the member who dared go against the wishes of the elders, and chose a life partner of his own free will.
Shahzad Latif as Kaz and Sajal Aly as Maymouna in the film
Shahzad Latif (Doctor Kazim – aka Kaz), is the youngest member of this family and he and Zoe are childhood friends, who dance around the possibility of falling in love during their growing-up years but never quite do so. Carrying the guilt of one sibling going against the wishes of their traditional Pakistani parents and a grandmother, Kaz takes it upon himself to opt for an arranged marriage. Arranged marriage, an idea alien to Zoe who has seen her quirky mom follow her heart all her life, decides to document this proposed match that Kaz and Zoe call “Love Contractually”. Enters Maymouna (Sajal Aly), a girl from Lahore selected to be the match for Kaz over a Skype session.
Kaz (Shahzad Latif) with his family in the film
The film claims to bring into question the pros and cons of arranged marriages and proposes such matrimonies be renamed, “assisted marriages”. Arranged marriages are a tradition prevalent in South Asia where the elders of a family, usually, parents, matchmake a boy and girl of marriageable age to be tied in wedlock, a common practice to date in Pakistan. As an individual’s liberty and agency for life decisions take precedence over considerations of family and community. Kaz, a western-educated successful oncologist from London, settling for marrying a girl from Lahore whom he has only met virtually, leaves his childhood friend Zoe perplexed. Fascinated by this arranged (or assisted) marriage, Zoe convinces Kaz to let her make a documentary about his journey to find a wife. She and Cath travel to Pakistan as part of the groom’s troupe. As the wedding day draws close, Zoe is forced to face her own emotions that she had been refusing to acknowledge. Lahore is exoticized via all the cliches in the book: Zoe and Kaz taking a stroll in the old city of Lahore, a qawwal party led by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan at an obscure shrine, and a mehndi dance that borders cringy and falls spectacularly over the edge into being plain offensive. Jemima, who has the credit for being the writer and producer of What’s Love Got to Do with It? , obviously views Pakistan and arranged marriages through her rose-tinted glasses. Full marks for the noble intention of addressing the West’s lack of understanding of how matrimonial bonds are facilitated in the East, one is left wishing the script had gone through a few more rounds of revisions.
Lilly James in the film
Rest assured, the weakest link for What’s love got to do with it? is neither the flawed script nor the paper-thin characterization (except Cath). Coming from the producers of the fascinating Love Actually and Bridget Jone’s Diary, the biggest failing of What’s love got to do with it? actually stems from where it was least expected. Shekhar Kapoor who has given excellent films such as Elizabeth in the past, proves that when a film tanks, the blame ultimately rests with the director. After all, the film is called a director’s medium for a reason. Kapoor captaining What’s Love Got to Do with It? is definitely out of his depth. For example, in an interview, Sajal says that when she asked Shekhar what did he want her to do in the particular mehndi dance sequence and how much energy he wanted, he said ‘do whatever you wanna do and put in as much energy as you have’. This clearly shows that Shekhar was not actually invested in What’s Love Got to Do with It?
Sajal, Shekhar Kapoor and Shabana Azmi
Let us now look at some positives. Sajal Aly looks ravishing and acts well. She has really owned Maymouna, and makes an impact despite limited screen time. The way her character arc is wrapped does a huge injustice to a very talented actor. Shahzad Latif looks good and makes Kaz likable, despite no real margin to project the emotions of a very one-dimensional character. Shabana does what she has been doing over and over in every cross-cultural film, a stern-faced-but-hurt-inside-mom. Emma Thompson is much more entertaining and leaves the viewers hoping she gets featured in every scene. She has some of the most wicked and cleverly crafted dialogues to deliver. Lily James is not bad, but neither is she great as Zoe. She brilliantly essayed the role of Pamela Anderson in the biographical series ‘Pam & Tommy’ last year, and earned herself an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie. In What’s Love Got to Do with It? she is lukewarm at best.
Emma Thompson and Lilly James as mother-daughter
All in all, a two-and-a-half star and blame Shekhar for masterfully turning a potentially nuanced cross-cultural material into a blandly packaged and whitewashed view of love and marriage, assisted or arranged.
Official trailer of What Love Has Got to Do with It?
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