Our idea of love springs from things immemorial – the books we read, films we watch, poems we devour, even the Tina Turner song we forever attach to that phrase: What's love got to do with it? Well, everything of course. As we know, and will unsurprisingly learn again at the end of this very pleasing but also eager-to-please film. A multi-cultural romance doesn't come with a pedigree better than this. It marks the return to direction of Shekhar Kapur, the wunderkind who blazed at home with a series of noticeable films, shot to world attention with Elizabeth and then for 16 years didn't make a film, till now. It marks the debut as a screenwriter of Jemima Khan née Goldsmith, the woman who was very much part of British upper-class circles but who we, in this part of the world, know better as the woman who crazily married Imran Khan and moved to Pakistan. If the subcontinent's ammi in the film is Shabana Azmi, the English mum is Emma Thompson. And then there are the couple at the heart of this love story who must make us believe in that four-letter word against all odds, apps, paps and raps: Lily James and Shazad Latif, who are very good in inducing that wee chemistry which lifts a romance to love, and which remains a mean task despite the many manifestations of it. Their confident relationship partly springs from the fact that the film is so entirely un-self-conscious about what all it is juggling – east to west, young to old, modernity to tradition, different worlds in ways more than one. Kapur and Khan bring an empathetic eye to the story, and do not slip into easy assumptions on either side of the two continents. But if that is the film's strength, it might also be its failing. When a dashing young Pakistani-origin highly-eligible, football-playing doctor based in London, Kasim (Latif), decides to follow his parents and go to Lahore to find a bride, and his childhood friend and eminently attractive neighbour, Zoe (James), decides to follow to make a film to add to her notable oeuvre, and when one scene involves Kasim fastening a necklace around Zoe's slender neck, there is only one way this story is going to go. However, when the two argue about “falling in love” as opposed to “falling in like and walking to love”, meeting “the one” via apps or via family, “starting with love” or “ending with it”, you hope for a deeper insight. When the film moves to Lahore and the women there take our London doctor by surprise, you hope for a break from stereotypes. When Zoe questions her mother about whether alone has to be lonely, you hope for a different way. When Kasim's young bride-to-be Maymoona (a very sly Ali, creeping under your skin) gives it her all on her Mehndi dance floor, you hope to be surprised. But, it is not to be. Latest reviews: Zwigato | Rocket Boys Season 2 | Shazam! Fury of the Gods | Mrs Chatterjee Vs Norway | Kabzaa In the many fairy tales that Zoe tells a friends' children whom she is babysitting, with her own modern twist to them, one is about the princess and the frog. The princess would rather have an interesting frog, she says, than a boring prince. Might make for a good laugh, but – alas – still not a good story. What's Love Got To Do With It movie director: Shekhar Kapur What's Love Got To Do With It movie cast: Shazad Latif, Lily James, Shabana Azmi, Emma Thompson, Sajal Ali What's Love Got To Do With It movie rating: 3 stars
