| Book-ended with two Indian weddings, A Nice Indian Boy is a funny, joyous, semi-clash of cultures rom-com. It’s only partially a clash of cultures, because much to the parents’ confusion and the audience’s amusement, Jay (Jonathan Groff) is essentially Indian. The actor of course is not, but the character is a white American and Indian. Jay was in foster care as a young child and then adopted and raised by two Indian-American parents. | | 2024
Directed by: Roshan Sethi
Screenplay by: Eric Randall, Madhuri Shekar
Starring: Karan Soni, Jonathan Groff
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Jay is a practicing but not devout Hindu, speaks Hindi, and is very well-versed in Indian traditions and Bollywood movies. Naveen (Karan Soni) knew none of this. He’s quite thrown after meeting Jay at Temple and then this very confident, gay, artist proceeds to ask him out and takes him to see a Bollywood movie. Naveen is a quiet, shy, awkward doctor; Jay is the opposite. But it’s love at first sight, or at least after first explanation.
Most of the first act of the movie is jokes courtesy of Naveen’s parents. They are accepting of Naveen being gay but also proceed to explain the entire plot of the movie Milk as a warning about how not to meet guys who might want to kill you. As Naveen later explains, they really are quite liberal and progressive for Indian parents, except don’t talk about alcohol, meat, or drugs, no declarations of love, and absolutely no acts of physical affection.
When Naveen’s parents meet Jay for the first time, he forgot to tell them anything about Jay, and the fact that they were engaged. Oops. And then he also forgot to tell Jay that he didn’t tell his parents anything about him and then proceeds to hide and lie about their relationship while Jay is right there. Double oops. But the genius of the second act is that the collapse of their relationship is not the key part, but rather the collapse of the relationship between Naveen and his sister Arundhathi. One sibling is acutely aware of what their parents’ beliefs truly are and the other gets to live this blissfully unaware life. It’s a rude awakening for both of them but it’s well written and is a diversion the film needs. It’s a surprising emotional turn for the film to make but fits these characters so well and is an original secondary plot for a rom-com.
The mending of Jay and Naveen’s relationship does not take long, partly because the film knows it’s a romantic comedy and never tries to hide that fact, and partly because Naveen and Jay are in love and do want to be together, it’s just a matter of figuring out how this nice Indian boy fits into his nice Indian family. The third act goes back to comedy because it’s time to plan the wedding, complete with an over-bearing Indian mother, a clueless wedding planner and two Indian grooms.
A Nice Indian Boy is a very funny, modern rom-com, which takes a clever spin on the clash-of-cultures subgenre to turn the movie into something joyous and special. Not only did I not want this film to end, but perhaps it could be a series: A Nice Indian Anniversary, A Nice Indian Baby…
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