A Nice Indian Boy, comedy, drama, film festivals, Harish Patel, Jonathan Groff, Karan Soni, LGBTQ, movies, Peter S. Kim, reviews, Roshan Sethi, Sachin Sahel, Sas Goldberg, Sean Amsing, Sunita Mani, SXSW, SXSW Film and TV Festival, SXSW Film Festival, Vancouver, Zarna Garg
April 28, 2025
by Carla Hay
Directed by Roshan Sethi
Some language in Hindi with subtitles
Culture Representation: Taking place in Vancouver, the comedy/drama film “A Nice Indian Boy” (based on the play of the same name) features a predominantly Asian cast of characters (with a few white people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: An Indian Canadian doctor, who is openly gay, meets and falls in love with an openly gay white photographer, and the doctor worries about commitment issues and whether or not his own parents will accept their interracial relationship.
Culture Audience: “A Nice Indian Boy” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in romantic comedies/dramas with likable characters dealing with LGBTQ relationships and family issues.
“A Nice Indian Boy” follows the same formulas of romantic comedies where one person in a couple is more commitment-phobic than the other. However, this charming movie has a rare perspective of an interracial gay couple confronting family differences. If “A Nice Indian Boy” falls short on surprises, it more than makes up for it with a vibrant authenticity that can resonate with anyone who has experiences with adult relationships.
Directed by Roshan Sethi and written by Eric Randall, “A Nice Indian Boy” had its world premiere at the 2024 SXSW Film & TV Festival. The movie is based on Madhuri Shekar’s “A Nice Indian Boy” play that had a stint in Los Angeles in 2014. “A Nice Indian Boy” takes place in Vancouver, where the movie was filmed on location.
“A Nice Indian Boy” is told from the perspective of and narrated by 31-year-old Naveen Gavaskar (played by Karan Soni), an introverted and socially awkward doctor, who works at Karloff Memorial Hospital. Naveen is openly gay and looking for love, mostly on dating apps. The movie’s opening scene is a flashback to the lavish wedding of Naveen’s overachieving younger sister Arundhathi (played by Sunita Mani), who has seemingly found her ideal match in her husband Manish Rao (played by Sachin Sahel), who would go on to become an orthopedic surgeon.
In voiceover narration, Naveen says of this wedding: “I was 25 when my sister got married. This was the best day of my mother’s life” because his mother was proud that Arundhathi had married “a nice Indian boy.” Although Naveen is out of the closet to his family and close friends, a lot of the guests at the wedding don’t know that he is gay. And so, he has several people commenting to him at the wedding that he will be next to have a big Indian wedding, and they assume that he will be marrying a woman.
“Just one concern,” Naveen says in the voiceover. “What would it be like if I brought home a nice Indian boy?” Naveen’s family knows that he is gay. He just hasn’t introduced them to any of his boyfriends or lovers. It’s an emotional roadblock that Naveen has to covercome if he wants a serious and committed relationship.
Naveen’s mother Megha Gavaskar (played by Zarna Garg) is opinionated and has a tendency to be overbearing. For example, an early scene in the movie, Megha calls Naveen at his job to remind him to renew his AAA car insurance membership. Megha, tries hard to be a supportive parent to her gay son, but she admits she doesn’t know much about what to talk to him about. And so, she says things to Naveen such as she likes to watch Out TV and movies like the Oscar-winning “Milk,” a biopic about gay civil rights activist Harvey Milk, who was murdered in San Francisco in 1978.
Naveen’s father Archit Gavaskar (played by Harish Patel) is much quieter and more laid-back than Megha. However, he’s not so laid-back about Naveen’s sexuality. He’s uncomfortable talking to Naveen about Naveen being gay. Archit seems to have a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy when it comes to Naveen’s love life.
Archit and Megha had an arranged marriage, which affects their views on how their children should approach marriage. Although Megha says that spouses in arranged marriages can learn to love each other (or at least like each other), Megha seems bored and restless in her own marriage. Most of the time that she’s with Archit, she seems to be irritated by him.
That’s because Megha thinks Archit has gotten lazy in their relationship and believes that he takes her for granted. The more that Megha seems annoyed by Archit, the more he shuts down emotionally, which causes a cycle of frustration in their marriage. Observant viewers will notice as the movie goes on that Naveen is a lot like his father Archie in how he has difficulty expressing his emotions, while Arundhathi is a lot like her mother Megha by being very outspoken with her emotions.
“A Nice Indian Boy” is told in four chapters. Chapter 1 is titled “The Boy.” Chapter 2 is titled “The Love.” Chapter 3 is titled “The Family.” Chapter 4 is titled “The Music.” Most movies about gay men who introduce a boyfriend to family members for the first time have to do with anxieties over the whether or not the family will accept the boyfriends’ queerness. In “A Nice Indian Boy,” the anxieties have more to do with racial acceptance.
Naveen’s closest friend is his lively co-worker Paul (played by Peter S. Kim), who is also an openly gay doctor. Paul encourages Naveen to go out and meet more potential love partners in person at fun events instead of online. A comedic montage shows a lonely Naveen calling men he’s made contact in the past to try to reconnect and leaving a series of awkward voice mail messages.
One day, Naveen is praying at a Hindu temple when a good-looking man (played by Jonathan Groff), who’s in his 30s, sits down behind Naveen and prays too. Naveen barely glances at this stranger but seems to be aware that this man is physically attractive. It won’t be long before Naveen will see him again.
One day, the hospital employees are getting their photo portraits done. The photographer is a handsome and friendly frelancer named Jay Kurundkar (played by Jonathan Groff), who is much more open about his feelings than Naveen. Jay and Naveen are instantly attracted to each other. Jay asks Naveen out on a date, and Naveen nervously says yes.
During this first date, they see a movie and then go to a gay bar. Jay tells Naveen that Jay (who has no siblings) spent his early childhood in foster homes and was adopted by Indian parents, who are now decased because Jay’s adoptive parents adopted him much later in their lives. Jay also mentions that his favorite movie is the 1995 romantic Bollywood drama “Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge.”
Jay isn’t shy about being occasionally dorky, such as when he sings lines from “Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge” to Naveen. Jay also vapes marijuana during the date and admits that he vapes when he’s nervous. This vaping results in a pivotal scene that affects Jay’s relationship with Naveen. Naveen is much more self-conscious and stoic during the date. Jay interprets it as Naveen not being very interested in him.
For example, Jay also opens up to Naveen about what Jay’s fantasy wedding would be like. He describes a big ceremony and reception with a lot of joy and choreographed dancing and at least one song from “Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge.” Naveen barely reacts out of nervousness, but Jay gets embarrassed because he thinks he might have turned off Naveen by talking about his dream wedding on their first date.
“A Nice Indian Boy” has some plot development clichés, but what the movie handles very well is the dialogue. This is not a movie where the would-be couple have an amazing first date. It’s not a completely terrible first date. It’s a realistic first date that shows two strangers trying to get to know each other better and doing their best not to make a bad impression on the other.
Jay eagerly brings Naveen into Jay’s world, by inviting Naveen to Jay’s photo gallery exhibit and by bringing Naveen to a house party, where Jay introduces Naveen to Jay’s supportive friends Billie (played by Sas Goldberg) and Neel (played by Sean Amsing). The problem is that Naveen is much more reluctant to bring Jay into Naveen’s world. Naveen keeps postponing the opportunity for Jay to meet Naveen’s family.
As already shown in the trailer for “A Nice Indian Boy,” Jay eventually does meet Naveen’s family. But that doesn’t mean it’s all smooth sailing from there, because Naveen’s parents expected him to have a partner with Indian heritage. And because the caste system is part of Indian culture, there’s some social-class snobbery from Naveen’s parents, who are disappointed that Jay has a job that has less stability and a much lower income than Naveen’s doctor job.
In addition to having appealing dialogue, “A Nice Indian Boy” has very entertaining performances from all the principal cast members. Naveen and Jay are an “opposites attract” couple, but it looks believable. Garg gives a standout performances as strong-willed matriarch Megha, who has a lot more sensitivity and vulnerability than she shows to most people.
The movie also shows in meaningful ways how the marriage experiences of Naveen’s parents and sister affect their perspectives and attitudes. Certain people in the family have to learn how to gracefully deal with disappointments when life doesn’t go exactly as planned. Rather than reducing the love story of Naveen and Jay to being a “will they or won’t they get married” dilemma, “A Nice Indian Boy” goes beyond the wedding issues and offers an adorable (but not too cutesy) tale of a family navigating changes without losing love for each other.
Blue Harbor Entertainment released “A Nice Indian Boy” in select U.S. cinemas on April 4, 2025. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on May 9, 2025.