“A Nice Indian Boy” Brings Home the Love
Over two decades ago, My Big Fat Greek Wedding delighted audiences. For all its hyper-specificity, the film was able to charm everyone who watched it, Greek or not. Now, a new wedding movie has joined the mix. Based on Madhuri Shekar’s play of the same name, A Nice Indian Boy has all the makings of a once-in-a-decade romantic comedy that can make anyone take another chance on love.
Naveen (Karan Soni) is a perpetually single doctor. At every wedding, various family members go up to him and say “you’re next.” It should be a kind reassurance, but anyone who’s been on the receiving end of such a sentiment knows that it’s actually thinly-veiled pressure. Naveen’s parents (Zarna Garg & Harish Patel), his mother specifically, are also concerned about when Naveen will bring home a nice Indian boy to marry, like his sister (Sunita Mani) has. Enter Jay (Jonathan Groff), who is white, but was adopted by an older Indian couple. As Jay and Naveen fall in love, Naveen braces himself for how his family will react when he finally brings home a nice Indian boy.
There’s an infectious joy to A Nice Indian Boy, one that oozes from every frame. So much of that is because of Garg’s performance as Naveen’s mother. Garg is primarily a stand-up comedian, and her role as Megha Gavaskar is her first time as an actor. Queer kids who are lucky enough to have supportive parents are quite familiar with someone like Megha, who valiantly tries to bond with her queer child by watching a movie like Milk. She recounts the plot in a confusing, nonsensical manner to him over the phone, and that seems sweet to someone on the outside. For the child on the other end of the line, however, it’s excruciating.
Courtesy of Levantine Films
A Nice Indian Boy isn’t a coming-out story, but one about the myriad of ways families try to understand one another. The humor of the film comes from the absurdity of family, something every single person can relate to. These people are connected to us by DNA, yet so often they feel like strangers. Naveen and his sister, Arundhathi, are so concerned with how their parents see them that they forget to care about how they view themselves. Their personal feelings are buried under the weight of familial expectations. The siblings are torn between two worlds, their past and their future. It’s a matter of not wanting something and being afraid of that desire. Self-introspection is necessary to be able to distinguish between the two.
On to the love story of it all. Jay and Naveen have a meet cute, first as a passing glance at a temple and then at Naveen’s hospital. As a freelance photographer, Jay has been hired by the hospital to take headshots of the staff. Their first date doesn’t go well, as Jay can’t help but sing songs from Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, a Bollywood movie he invited Naveen to see. Naveen and Jay are on opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of how love should be communicated. Where Jay is all about the big, loud declarations, Naveen would prefer to say nothing. It’s this push and pull that provides the third act with the momentum to (hopefully) bring these men to the altar.
A Nice Indian Boy is tooth-achingly endearing and reminiscent of the best romantic comedies, where the chemistry is crackling, the jokes are flying, and the romance is swoonworthy.
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