September 15, 2025
by Carla Hay
Directed by Rahat Shah Kazmi
Hindi and Vietnamese with subtitles
Culture Representation: Taking place over an eight-year period in the early 21st century, in Vietnam and in India, the dramatic film “Love in Vietnam” (inspired by the 1943 novel “Madonna in a Fur Coat”) features an all-Asian cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: An Indian man and a Vietnamese woman have an on-again, off-again romance over an eight-year period.
Culture Audience: “Love in Vietnam” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners, the book “Madonna in a Fur Coat,” and overly sappy romance stories that lack genuine passion.
Corny and overstuffed with cringeworthy clichés, “Love in Vietnam” is an overly long drama made worse by the horrible acting. The movie has attractive visuals but fails to make the central romance look believable. Everything in the screenplay and direction is like a movie version of a cheap and mawkish romance novel.
Directed by Rahat Shah Kazmi (who co-wrote the abysmal screenplay with Kritika Rampal), “Love in Vietnam” is inspired by Sabahattin Ali’s 1943 novel “Madonna in a Fur Coat.” The movie takes place in Vietnam and India, over an eight-year period in the early 21st century.
It’s a basic story that is stretched too thin in a 132-minute movie with annoying breakups and reunions between the central couple. In the beginning of the movie, Manav (played by Shantanu Maheshwari) is an orphaned guy in his late teens who lives in Punjab, India, with his affluent uncle Soorma Singh (played by Raj Babbar), who sends to Manav to Vietnam for Manav’s university education. Simmi (played by Avneet Kaur), who is Manav’s best friend from childhood and has hopes to marry him, goes to the same university and is one of Manav’s roommates in Vietnam.
While in Vietnam, Manav immediately becomes infatuated with a painter artist named Linh (played by Khả Ngân) when he sees a self-portrait of Linh in a museum gallery. Manav is with several students on a class field trip when he see this portrait hanging on a wall. This is what he says out loud when he stares at the portrait in lustful awe: “She reminds me of my mother.” Is that supposed to be romantic? No, it’s creepy.
The students laugh at Manav for his bizarre comment. He becomes obsessed with finding the woman in the portrait. Manav tracks down Linh and stalks her. She plays “hard to get,” but he relentlessly pursues her until she agrees to date him. Manav and Linh have an on-again/off-again romance, where Linh is the one who always breaks up with Manav.
Simmi gets jealous about this romance because Simmi’s family and Manav’s family had expected Simmi and Manav to have an arranged marriage. Simmi seems to be in love with Manav, but she’s really a possessive control freak who verbally lashes out if she doesn’t get her way. Expect at least two scenes in the movie where someone shouts to someone else: “We were meant to be together!”
It’s the same old over-used formula in movies about romances: Two people who are a couple break up because of conflicts or a big misunderstanding. And then, they get back together. And then, the same relationship problems resurface. There’s probably a love triangle in the story. The couple might or might not break up again, but it all leads to a happy ending.
A sure sign of a bad romantic movie is when the romance looks fake and forced, due to terrible performances and a lack of chemistry between the cast members portraying the lovers. Ngân’s stiff acting is the worst thing about “Love in Vietnam” and drags down every scene that she’s in, while Maheshwari gives a one-note performance of someone who acts more like an obsessed fan than a true love partner. Kaur doesn’t do much that’s impressive with her portrayal of Simmi, who is whiny and petulant for most of the movie.
The movie tries hard to convince that someone who acts like Manav is “in love,” even though many of his unhinged actions look like he’s mentally ill. Linh isn’t much better, because she doesn’t seem emotionally stable enough to be in a committed relationship, as her erratic feelings about Manav run hot and cold within minutes of each other. And even though “Love in Vietnam” takes place over eight years, the characters do not look convincingly older as time progresses during those eight years.
About the only good thing about “Love in Vietnam” is the cinematography, which makes the photogenic locations look very appealing. The movie’s song-and-dance numbers are extremely generic. The ending is absolutely atrocious. By the time this movie ends, you won’t care about any of the story’s flaky people and their neurotic problems that they brought on themselves.
Reliance Entertainment released “Love in Vietnam” in select U.S. cinemas on September 12, 2025, the same day that the movie was released in India.