Shekhar Kapur’s What’s Love Got To Do With It? has been playing in UK cinemas since last week, and has attracted praise for its light-hearted cross-cultural take on relationships.
Shot in London, the film releases in India on Friday and will make audiences think a little deeper about arranged marriages and how they aren’t necessarily a thing of the past, says award-winning actor Shabana Azmi who plays a key character in the romantic comedy.
The film revolves around the concept of “assisted marriage” and is scripted by British writer-producer Jemima Khan based on her own experiences of life in Pakistan as the ex-wife of cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan.
Azmi plays the character of Aisha, a London-based mother of the film’s male lead who seeks assistance to arrange his marriage.
“Firstly, this isn’t an arranged marriage in the traditional sense as we understand it. It’s more like an assisted marriage, which is basically to assist the couple to meet, and then it would actually depend on their choice,” Azmi told PTI in an interview.
“Now, this has been looked upon traditionally as a very unprogressive thing to do and I think what the film is trying to say is, maybe we need to look a little deeper and see if we can find some elements that we have missed. It doesn’t poke fun but just looks at it in a very affectionate kind of way and I think that’s the success of the script,” she said.
