Unfortunately, the passage of Monica Ali's acclaimed novel to the big screen was tainted by protest from the very community it celebrates.

Some members of the Bangladeshi community objected to Ali's depiction and veiled threats persuaded director Sarah Gavron to shift filming elsewhere.

They needn't have worried. Brick Lane is a subtle, balanced, compassionate glimpse into the East End and is - first and foremost - a love story not a social history.

It tells the story of Nazneen (Chatterjee), a timid Bangladeshi woman who moved with her husband Chanu (Kaushik - superb) to Britain seventeen years before.

Now, with two Westernised kids and a feckless hubbie in tow, she feels trapped in the cramped confines of her dour London high-rise.

Escape comes in the form of Karim (Simpson), a go-ahead young Moslem entrepreneur who teases out a glimmer of independent spirit in Nazneen.

The two become lovers but the events of September 11 see them drifting apart as Karim becomes increasingly radicalised by the knee-jerk demonisation of the Moslem faith.

This is essentially a three-hander with all the principals delivering richly assured, three-dimensional performances.

Kaushik is particularly good as the complex Chanu - one the one hand, a well-meaning, loving husband but on the other an instinctive, self-deluded bully unable to recognise his wife's drift towards independence.

It's difficult to see just what the fuss was all about - this is a handsomely made romance, compellingly acted and thoroughly satisfying.

Tim Evans