Naveen Gavaskar (Karan Soni) sits by himself at his sister\u2019s wedding, glumly eating samosas while everyone around him dances and celebrates to the song \u201cBadtameez Dil\u201d.\u00a0 It\u2019s the perfect choice to watch Naveen ponder what the expectations are of him \u2013 that his wedding will be next, that he\u2019ll marry a nice Indian girl \u2013 but Naveen\u2019s heart doesn\u2019t behave in this way.\u00a0 It\u2019s a badtameez dil, an \u201cill-mannered heart\u201d, one that listens to a different beat.\u00a0 As Naveen puts it, referring to his family:\u00a0 \u201cThey obviously know I\u2019m gay, they\u2019ve just never seen me *be* gay, with another gay.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s a problem that is solved when Naveen meets Jay Kurundkar (Jonathan Groff), the adopted son of older Indian parents.\u00a0 Naveen and Jay meet-cute (Jay is the photographer taking the staff pictures at Naveen\u2019s hospital), where Jay notes he\u2019d seen Naveen praying to Ganesh at temple.\u00a0 The temple scene is actually a pitch-perfect moment in a film that is overflowing with pitch-perfect moments.\u00a0 It comes just after Naveen\u2019s mother, Megha (a delightful Zarna Garg) has talked his ear off about the film Milk<\/strong>, wondering at one point how one gay can just glance at another gay and they know they\u2019re both gay.\u00a0 As Naveen is praying, he notes the presence of someone else in the room\u00a0 He turns his head to see who it is, he sees Jay, he turns back, and his eyes widen.\u00a0 At the same time, Jay notes Naveen\u2019s brief attention \u2013 is this their actual meet-cute?\u00a0 It\u2019s such a flash that you almost miss it, but it\u2019s such a terrific narrative touch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When Jay takes Naveen\u2019s staff picture, he invites Naveen to be \u201cnot so contained\u201d \u2013 there is some irony here, because Naveen is so buttoned-up, so contained and closed off that there\u2019s no way for his parents to understand what it means for him to be gay, even if they are accepting of him.\u00a0 His family knows he\u2019s gay, but he\u2019s never introduced his boyfriends to his family, and this becomes a sticking-point in his relationship with Jay.\u00a0 Jay is disappointed that Naveen never shares his feelings.\u00a0 Until the moment where Jay forces Naveen to speak up \u2013 in which Naveen admits that he wants what Jay wants \u2013 the great big Indian wedding, straight out of Aditya Chopra\u2019s 1995 film Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge <\/strong>(DDLJ<\/strong>).\u00a0 It amounts to a proposal to Jay, who accepts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A Nice Indian Boy<\/strong> is sweet and frothy and funny like a good rom-com should be.\u00a0 The film hits all the typical tropey rom-com beats, and that\u2019s a good thing \u2013 that\u2019s what rom-coms are about, that comfortable lived-in feeling.\u00a0 But movies in the rom-com genre often function by subverting societal norms.\u00a0 They typically put some obstacle in the path of the romance, and in A Nice Indian Boy,<\/strong> the obstacles to the romance are more about Naveen\u2019s inability to talk to his parents about what it means for him to be gay, and for his parents\u2019 inability to understand him, even as they accept him.\u00a0 The obstacles aren\u2019t just for our same-sex couple, but also for Naveen\u2019s sister and parents \u2013 the sister\u2019s arranged marriage doesn\u2019t last, and the parents, as we discover, have subverted gender roles in the kitchen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The film is also a tribute to Indian cinema \u2013 especially as DDLJ<\/strong> wends its way through the film.\u00a0 Jay notes that people might be embarrassed by the \u201cbigness of love\u201d the film portrays.\u00a0 But it\u2019s also a film that upholds a conservative view of family and marriage, one that A Nice Indian Boy<\/strong> subverts and reinvents.\u00a0 Roshan Sethi\u2019s film invites us to ponder what is, exactly, a \u201cnice Indian boy\u201d?\u00a0 Is it Manish (Arundhathi\u2019s husband), a doctor, who agrees to the arranged marriage?\u00a0 Is it Naveen, also a doctor, but gay, and, therefore, limited in how his marriage could be arranged?\u00a0 Is it Jay, the white adopted son of older Indian parents, in a profession he loves, photographer, but which isn\u2019t seen as stable by Naveen\u2019s 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<\/strong>?\u00a0 Or is it Naveen\u2019s 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?<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.\u00a0 And it\u2019s Jay\u2019s description of why he likes DDLJ<\/strong> that is the perfect metaphor for A Nice Indian Boy<\/strong> \u2013 as Jay says, \u201cYou know, that\u2019s what I love about DDLJ<\/strong>.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t end with the couple getting together in the end like in an American movie.\u00a0 Because it\u2019s not about two people going at it alone, clinging to each other like life rafts.\u00a0 It\u2019s about everybody, together.\u00a0 The family.\u00a0 The wedding.\u201d\u00a0 The big love that no one can be embarrassed by.\u00a0 As Naveen\u2019s family dance at the wedding to Tesher\u2019s song \u201cJalebi Baby\u201d, they invite Jay into this messy, wonderful family with an utterly infectious joy.\u00a0 It couldn\u2019t be a more perfect rom-com ending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After a successful theatrical release, the critically-acclaimed film A NICE INDIAN BOY<\/strong> is now available starting today to rent or buy at home on digital platforms.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Naveen Gavaskar (Karan Soni) sits by himself at his sister\u2019s wedding, glumly eating samosas while everyone around him dances and celebrates to the song \u201cBadtameez Dil\u201d.\u00a0 It\u2019s the perfect choice to watch Naveen ponder what the expectations are of him \u2013 that his wedding will be next, that he\u2019ll marry…<\/p>\n
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