PalCinema Review: A Nice Indian Boy
An enlightening romantic comedy featuring a different kind of same sex relationship
April 7, 2025
FILM: A NICE INDIAN BOY
DIRECTED BY: ROSHAN SETHI
STARRING: KARAN SONI, JONATHAN GROFF, SUNITA MANI
RATING: 3 ½ out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
Romantic film comedies have been around for over a century now filled with some very familiar tropes: guy meets girl, family and/or friends get involved, conflicts threaten the relationship, a major climax occurs, but all turns out well in the end and everyone leaves feeling good. What we’ve not seen in all of these years is a rom com about a gay man whose family is from India and who falls for a white man that also happens to practice Hinduism. See?! Not all rom coms are alike! The new film A Nice Indian Boy is a pretty standard and somewhat predictable film but it’s also groundbreaking in its depiction of this clash of cultures and ideologies.
Karan Soni stars as Naveen who, at the start of the film, watches his sister Arundhathi have a big, splashy, traditional Indian wedding where everyone keeps reminding him that he’ll be next. Naveen’s voice over narration makes it clear though that he is gay and generally out to his immediate family. This, in and of itself, is significant as one might expect the story to focus on his coming out process. Rather, they are a pretty liberal family, especially mom, played wonderfully by Zana Garg. She still believes in traditions but accepts who Naveen is. Dad is a bit of a curmudgeon but both parents watch gay network television to understand their son better.
Several years after his sister’s wedding, Naveen, now a doctor, meets a photographer named Jay, played by Tony winner Jonathan Groff. Jay is also very interesting because he was adopted by Indian parents and became spiritually devoted to Hinduism. This should make for a seemingly easy connection to Naveen’s family. However, writers Eric Randall and Madhuri Shekar manage to take the plot in a novel direction by depicting Naveen as the more reluctant character in the relationship. He’s so tight in his background and insecurities that he makes the situation far more complicated than necessary.
This is, in part, what makes the film work so well. Sure, there are the usual conventions involving parents and misunderstandings between the romantic couple but Naveen’s character doesn’t follow a traditional trajectory mostly because of his sense of shame and his inner fears. His parents and sister are also fully developed, interesting characters that are much deeper than initially meets the eye. Mom, for instance, initially comes across as the nagging Indian mother but she later reveals her own struggles in the early days of her marriage and personal life. Dad is also cold and gruff but later we learn that he has had his own troubled past with interests that ran outside of the traditional path for an Indian male. There’s also some major discord happening in Arundhathi’s marriage suggesting all isn’t perfect once the marriage starts. Of course, the character of Jay is also fascinating and totally original with his strong Hindu spiritual life.
The actors all excel in their roles. Jonathan Groff is naturally handsome as the co-romantic lead with a face that is always seemingly glowing. Yet even Jay has his limits with the troubled Naveen. Groff handles those scenes with skill and passion. I was also impressed with Zarna Garg as mom and Hrish Patel as dad. They both offer tremendous depth to roles that could have been one note. Both reveal layers to their characters in finely modulated performances that never forget that this is, first and foremost, a romantic comedy.
It’s hard not to watch this and imagine where the story is ultimately going but how it gets there, with these particular characters and the smart script, is very original. It breaks ground in helping us see a different kind of same sex couple. The film also offers an interesting look at a complex Indian family and offers viewers a fresh and modern take on its own interrelationships.
A Nice Indian Boy is now playing in theaters.
Have you seen this film yet?
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I enjoyed this review and as a romance lover and a Jonathan Groff groupie I’m going to see it. One thought with Naveen’s more resistant mindset regarding his relationship with Jay in the context of cross cultural stories and their dynamic is that I’d expect Naveen to be this way. Where there is a prevailing, dominant culture which highly values heteronormativity (and shuns other forms of romantic love), regardless whether the parents are accepting and supportive of queer children, the children are often caught in this dynamic of shame and resentment. If Naveen wasn’t this way, I think it would be less realistic.
A sweet and very relatable film. I thoroughly enjoyed it. You’d have to be pretty callous not to.