What's Love Got to Do with It? premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on 10 September 2022, and, at the Rome Film Fest the following month, won Best Comedy (the Ugo Tognazzi award). It was nominated for 9 awards at the 2023 National Film Awards, winning 4 awards: Best Screenplay, Best British Film, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor. It was released in the United Kingdom on 24 February 2023 by StudioCanal to mixed reviews.
Plot
Set between London and Lahore, Pakistan, the White British filmmaker Zoe Stevenson documents the experience of her British-Pakistani next door neighbours, in particular her best friend from childhood Kazim "Kaz" Khan's arranged marriage to a bride from Pakistan.[2]
Adamant on an arranged marriage to keep his parents happy, Kaz insists that such kind of marriages do work out, when questioned by Zoe. Eventually, a Muslim 'matchmaker' Mo, sets up a Skype call between Kaz and Maymouna, a girl from Pakistan. Kaz likes her, but she seems hesitant.
Eventually both Kaz and Maymouna's families agree to the marriage, and Kaz prepares to go to Lahore. Zoe, documenting the entire process from start to end follows them to Pakistan, learning more about Pakistani culture and traditions along the way. She is constantly nagged by her mother for failing to find a suitable guy herself, and so through the trip she hopes to learn more about whether someone chosen by parents could work.
In Pakistan, Kaz prepares for his wedding and is constantly interviewed by Zoe about details of his feelings towards the girl and the marriage. Kaz is determined that if he keeps a positive attitude, the wedding will work out. However, on the inside he seems to have his doubts too. Zoe mentions their first kiss in a treehouse behind their homes and he deflects by berating her for failing to find someone because she is too focused on finding the perfect person, and doesn't allow anyone to get close to her.
On the henna night, Kaz observes Maymouna smoking marijuana, and then drinking a large amount of alcohol and dancing wildly all over the floor. He now realizes Maymouna is not the girl he thought she was. Frustrated and confused, he leaves the event with Zoe and stumbles upon a qawwali performance in the inner streets of Old Lahore. Kaz explains to Zoe what the qawwal is singing about, which cause him to realize that his ideas of love align with Zoe's, however he has chosen to ignore them. Not long afterwards, Kaz and Zoe try to explain their feelings to one other, but are not able to do so.
The next day, Kaz gets married to Maymouna, Zoe witnesses an emotional rukhsati. On return to London, Zoe finally completes her film and begins dating James, a "stable" man her mother set her up with. Zoe's film now completed, the Khan family is invited to the premiere of the rough cut. On the same night, Zoe's boyfriend breaks up with her because he thinks she is in love with Kaz and he's just her Plan B. Zoe gets angry at her mother for setting her up with the guy in the first place, and accuses her of judging Zoe for her choices.
Zoe's movie ends up upsetting the Khan family for revealing that Kaz's sister, Jamila, had been disowned by the Khans for choosing to marry a white man. The movie is then rejected by Zoe's supervisors due to it having been filmed through a white lens. However, Maymouna loves it and tells Zoe it is beautiful.
Over the next few weeks, Maymouna and Kaz's marriage begins to go stale as neither develops any feelings for the other. Kaz is determined to make it work but Maymouna says the only way to make it work would be to pretend. Maymouna eventually confesses to Kaz that she is in love with someone else.
As Eid approaches, Zoe decides to go to Turkey to take a break from all her emotional stress. Her mother insists that she admires Zoe for her independence and never judged her for any of the choices she made. They are invited over by the Khans for the Eid celebration and Kaz reveals to everyone that he is divorced. Kaz also invites back his estranged sister, Jamila, her husband, and their baby. The family are finally reunited, and Jamila takes the baby to Nani Jan to hold. Zoe is overwhelmed by this sight of reconcilliation, and leaves, but Kaz follows her. He finds her in the treehouse and they share a kiss, confessing their feelings for each other but promising to take things slowly.
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 72% of 107 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6/10.The website's consensus reads: "What's Love Got to Do with It? is a standard issue romantic comedy in many respects, but a pair of appealing leads help make this love story more crowd-pleasing than not."[8]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 59 out of 100, based on 22 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[9]
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