Last updated on May 13, 2025
Naveen Gavaskar (Karan Soni) sits by himself at his sister’s wedding, glumly eating samosas while everyone around him dances and celebrates to the song “Badtameez Dil”. It’s the perfect choice to watch Naveen ponder what the expectations are of him – that his wedding will be next, that he’ll marry a nice Indian girl – but Naveen’s heart doesn’t behave in this way. It’s a badtameez dil, an “ill-mannered heart”, one that listens to a different beat. As Naveen puts it, referring to his family: “They obviously know I’m gay, they’ve just never seen me *be* gay, with another gay.”
It’s a problem that is solved when Naveen meets Jay Kurundkar (Jonathan Groff), the adopted son of older Indian parents. Naveen and Jay meet-cute (Jay is the photographer taking the staff pictures at Naveen’s hospital), where Jay notes he’d seen Naveen praying to Ganesh at temple. The temple scene is actually a pitch-perfect moment in a film that is overflowing with pitch-perfect moments. It comes just after Naveen’s mother, Megha (a delightful Zarna Garg) has talked his ear off about the film Milk, wondering at one point how one gay can just glance at another gay and they know they’re both gay. As Naveen is praying, he notes the presence of someone else in the room He turns his head to see who it is, he sees Jay, he turns back, and his eyes widen. At the same time, Jay notes Naveen’s brief attention – is this their actual meet-cute? It’s such a flash that you almost miss it, but it’s such a terrific narrative touch.
When Jay takes Naveen’s staff picture, he invites Naveen to be “not so contained” – there is some irony here, because Naveen is so buttoned-up, so contained and closed off that there’s no way for his parents to understand what it means for him to be gay, even if they are accepting of him. His family knows he’s gay, but he’s never introduced his boyfriends to his family, and this becomes a sticking-point in his relationship with Jay. Jay is disappointed that Naveen never shares his feelings. Until the moment where Jay forces Naveen to speak up – in which Naveen admits that he wants what Jay wants – the great big Indian wedding, straight out of Aditya Chopra’s 1995 film Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (DDLJ). It amounts to a proposal to Jay, who accepts.
A Nice Indian Boy is sweet and frothy and funny like a good rom-com should be. The film hits all the typical tropey rom-com beats, and that’s a good thing – that’s what rom-coms are about, that comfortable lived-in feeling. But movies in the rom-com genre often function by subverting societal norms. They typically put some obstacle in the path of the romance, and in A Nice Indian Boy, the obstacles to the romance are more about Naveen’s inability to talk to his parents about what it means for him to be gay, and for his parents’ inability to understand him, even as they accept him. The obstacles aren’t just for our same-sex couple, but also for Naveen’s sister and parents – the sister’s arranged marriage doesn’t last, and the parents, as we discover, have subverted gender roles in the kitchen.
The film is also a tribute to Indian cinema – especially as DDLJ wends its way through the film. Jay notes that people might be embarrassed by the “bigness of love” the film portrays. But it’s also a film that upholds a conservative view of family and marriage, one that A Nice Indian Boy subverts and reinvents. Roshan Sethi’s film invites us to ponder what is, exactly, a “nice Indian boy”? Is it Manish (Arundhathi’s husband), a doctor, who agrees to the arranged marriage? Is it Naveen, also a doctor, but gay, and, therefore, limited in how his marriage could be arranged? Is it Jay, the white adopted son of older Indian parents, in a profession he loves, photographer, but which isn’t seen as stable by Naveen’s parents, but with such a profound love for his adoptive parents that he still goes to temple and still honours his father by watching his favourite film, DDLJ? Or is it Naveen’s father, Archit (a subtly funny and warm Harish Patel) who submitted to the will of his father in both his profession and his marriage, but who subverts his own role by taking over the cooking in his household?
Director Roshan Sethi and writers Eric Randall and Madhuri Shekar give us a film that is, by turns, warm, tender, delicate and funny, and very sharply written. And it’s Jay’s description of why he likes DDLJ that is the perfect metaphor for A Nice Indian Boy – as Jay says, “You know, that’s what I love about DDLJ. It doesn’t end with the couple getting together in the end like in an American movie. Because it’s not about two people going at it alone, clinging to each other like life rafts. It’s about everybody, together. The family. The wedding.” The big love that no one can be embarrassed by. As Naveen’s family dance at the wedding to Tesher’s song “Jalebi Baby”, they invite Jay into this messy, wonderful family with an utterly infectious joy. It couldn’t be a more perfect rom-com ending.
After a successful theatrical release, the critically-acclaimed film A NICE INDIAN BOY is now available starting today to rent or buy at home on digital platforms.