What's Love Got to Do with It?
There is much to learn and to ponder in Jemima Khan’s genuinely witty and moving romcom about arranged marriage in England and Pakistan.
Prearranged? Shazad Latif with Lily James
We are talking about the love in an arranged marriage, of course. Although to be more up to date, the term is now known as “assisted marriage,” as in “assisted suicide.” The jokes fly thick and fast in this nuptial romcom scripted by Jemima Khan which addresses the chasm between the British and their Pakistani cohabitants. It’s certainly up-to-date, covering a wide stratum of topical issues, from HRT patches to Muslin dating apps. In fact, for Kazim Khan (Shazad Latif), a prominent British-born doctor, it’s “love at first Skype” when he connects with Pakistani native Maymouna (Sajal Aly), a liaison set up by his parents. She’s not only very beautiful, but intelligent, too, studying law in Lahore (there’s probably a pun in there as well).
For a thoroughly Westernised Muslim doctor to opt for an arranged marriage proves sufficiently unusual for the award-winning documentarian Zoe (Lily James) to make it the subject of her next film. It helps that she and Kazim have been friends since childhood, allowing her intimate access into his inner sanctum of bossy parents and giggly nieces – and maybe a few family skeletons, too. Kazim’s mother Aisha (Shabana Azmi) explains to Zoe’s camera: “it is better to fall in like, and walk into love.” We are also told that compared to the fifty per cent of Western marriages that end in divorce, only six per cent of arranged marriages do so. Aisha is obviously still smitten with Kazim’s father, Zahid (Jeff Mirza), in spite of his conventional views towards women. And in spite of Zoe’s initially cynical stance, the filmmaker begins to see a whole new value in this rich tradition. After all, it is no secret that Zoe has a somewhat checkered romantic history herself. In fact, she is now looking into having her eggs frozen, although she learns that “only one percent of frozen eggs result in a live birth.” Still, she’s determined not “to put all her eggs into one bastard.” Meanwhile, Zoe’s backers are hoping for an exotic Meet the Parents vibe, but she sells them on her pitch for Love Contractually.
Although brought to us by the director of Elizabeth and Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Shekhar Kapur's film is incontrovertibly a romantic comedy, if only because it is highly romantic and very funny. In Pakistan, a camp cousin brandishing a packet of spliffs, quips, “in the Qur'an it says that if a man lies with another man, he should be stoned.” There are stereotypes galore (Emma Thompson, as Zoe’s mother, is more of a caricature), but out of the stereotypes emerge recognisable human beings. The subject – love versus ‘like’ – is also thought-provoking, as is the culture clash throbbing throughout the streets of contemporary England. Throw in elegant shots of London and some Bollywood-style exuberance and a film emerges with more layers than one usually gets from the genre. Above all, though, it is the charisma of the two leads, Lily James and Shazad Latif, that makes What’s Love Got to Do With It? so genuinely appealing.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Lily James, Shazad Latif, Shabana Azmi, Emma Thompson, Sajal Aly, Oliver Chris, Asim Chaudhry, Jeff Mirza, Alice Orr-Ewing, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Mariam Haque.
Dir Shekhar Kapur, Pro Nicky Kentish Barnes, Jemima Khan, Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner, Screenplay Jemima Khan, Ph Remi Adefarasin, Pro Des Tom Coates, Ed Guy Bensley and Nick Moore, Music Nitin Sawhney, Costumes Caroline McCall, Dialect coach Zabarjad Salam.
Working Title Films/Instinct Productions-StudioCanal.
108 mins. UK/Pakinstan. 2022. UK Rel: 24 February 2023. Cert. 12A.
