Romance prevails in A Nice Indian Boy, a feel-good film with a sensitive and intelligent perspective on the complex intersections of cultural traditions, queerness, love and family. Directed by Roshan Sethi, with a screenplay by Eric Randall, based on the eponymous play by Madhuri Shekar, the film focuses on Naveen Gavaskar (Karan Soni), who is a nice Indian man, a doctor, with a twist – he’s gay and out to his traditional Indian family, who love and accept him unconditionally. Well, sort of. Despite what is in some ways a close relationship with his family, Naveen keeps his romantic life private. There is an understood conspiracy of silence that keeps family meals cordial, they don’t ask, and he does not volunteer information. The system works well, until one day, Naveen meets a nice Indian boy and that encounter changes everything.
Karan Soni (Safety Not Guaranteed 2012, Deadpool 2015 and its sequels) delivers an appealing performance as Naveen, whose capable and logical approach to life serves him well in the hospital where he works, but shutting out his emotions leaves him awkward and at a loss in more intimate social situations. As a gay man who grew up in a traditional culture, Naveen is confronted with an impossible dilemma. The festivals, prayers, songs, dances, food, and sense of community – this culture is what he knows and loves, it is an essential part of his identity, yet at the same time, he is excluded from participating fully and honestly because his way of life is rejected by his own culture. Instead of wanting something he knows he cannot have – a traditional, big, Indian wedding – Naveen does not allow himself to have those romantic aspirations.
In the romantic tradition, Naveen and Jay (Jonathan Groff) meet very cute. Like Naveen, Jay is a nice Indian boy with a twist – he’s white. Unlike Naveen, Jay, a commercial and artistic photographer who was adopted by Indian parents and so grew up in the religion and culture, embraces his complex identity fully, with an abundance of feelings. A Bollywood devotee, Jay easily bursts into song on the street, referencing the classic, romantic film Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995), or as it is known – DDLJ.
Generationally, we inevitably live in a world that is different from the one in which our parents grew up, even more so if we are the children of immigrants. The film depicts that tension within the Gavaskar family, as both Naveen and his older sister Arundhathi (Sunita Mani) struggle with the distance and contradictions between their parents’ expectations, and the surrounding culture in which they live. The parents – Megha (Zarna Garg) and Archit (Harish Patel) are also, each in their own way, struggling and suffering. Although the characters are not explored in depth, one of the film’s strengths is the way it depicts all the characters with compassion as well as humor. Arundhathi’s narrative arc takes a character that might easily have been a one-dimensional caricature of the perfect daughter, and instead, through Mani’s nuanced performance, offers insight, albeit brief, into her experience. Zarna Garg is a delight as Megha, pestering Naveen and Arundhathi and in general trying too hard and being too much, all with great heart.
As for Naveen and Jay, it’s a pleasure to follow the ups and downs of these two very different characters as the film adheres to the deeply satisfying rom-com structure, offering the hope that people can change, and dreams can come true.
A Nice Indian Boy
Director: Roshan Sethi; Screenplay: Eric Randall, based on the play by Madhuri Shekar; DOP: Amy Vincent; Editor: Stephanie Kaznocha; Music: Raashi Kulkarni; Cast: Karan Soni, Jonathan Groff, Sunita Mani, Zarna Garg, Harish Patel, Peter S. Kim, Sas Goldberg
USA/99 min/English
