Director Roshan Sethi yearned for a big Indian wedding, a lavish and unashamed expression of love. After years of struggling to come out, he’s finally getting married to a man. However, a Hindu marriage between two men is inconceivable to his mother. So, he decided to portray a gay Indian wedding ceremony for the first time on film.
“A Nice Indian Boy” (Wayfarer Studios) is his fantasy fulfilled. It’s also his personal dream of family acceptance and belonging he’s yet to experience himself. This exuberant film is a touching celebration of conventional romantic love defying expectations, but also family, culture, and generational collision.
He relies primarily on his fellow doctor/bestie Paul (the hilarious Peter S. Kim) to kvetch and tell him the new rules of gay dating, even at one point telling Naveen to ask his mother whether she’s seen “Bros.”
While worshipping Ganesha (the Hindu god of new beginnings) at a temple, Naveen spots Jay Kurundkar (Jonathan Groff), a white man who grew up in foster care until he was adopted by two now-dead Indian parents. Jay appears the next day as the photographer taking ID pictures of all the hospital staff.
They go on a cringy date, but Naveen is slowly charmed by Jay’s sincerity, brashness, and overenthusiastic serenading romanticism. After seeing the famous Bollywood musical “DDLJ,” Jay opines, “I think we’re all embarrassed by the bigness of love.” They fall in love, but Jay is upset. “Naveen didn’t tell his family about me, so it’s like I don’t exist.”
One afternoon, they run into Arundhathi’s husband Manish and an embarrassed Naveen describes Jay as a “friend.” This precipitates a discussion about what they both want, with Naveen admitting he dreams of having a big Indian wedding so he can hear the priest’s words, “You are now one soul.”
Jay meets the Gavaskars but it doesn’t go well, since his parents weren’t expecting him to be white. Naveen is caught between his identity with family versus who he is in the world. They fight, questioning everything about the relationship.
Jay observes, “You’re almost apologizing for the inconvenience of existing.” Jay moves out of their flat. Can they reconcile?
The film has its fairy tale aspects, but also sit-com moments. A majority of the movie focuses on Naveen’s family reaction to him and Jay as a couple. They’ve never actually seen Naveen be gay, as he’s never mentioned or brought home a boyfriend.
His mother calls Naveen at work detailing the plot of the film “Milk” which is featured on their new cable station OUTtv they’ve added in a misguided attempt to connect with his gay side and discover what might interest him.
Arundhathi resents her parent’s “acceptance” of Naveen while entertaining invasive questions about whether she’s pregnant. The film is adept at showing the conundrum of first-generation children adopting the free-spirited American mores which clash with traditional Indian values.
“A Nice Indian Boy” is basically an opposites-attract romance between the quiet, bashful, inhibited Naveen and open-hearted, dramatic, extraverted Jay, the dour realist vs. the hopeless romantic. One of the few flaws in the film is that Jay’s character isn’t developed as richly as Naveen.
Though, in all fairness, the movie is less about him than how immigrant families adapt to Western/American morality and bridge the cultural divide as well as the trials of being in an interracial relationship. There’s also a nuanced discussion about the virtues of arranged marriages (Naveen’s parents). Despite all this sociological baggage on changing cultural norms, the film retains its humor while avoiding sentimentality.
The film soars on the believable palpable chemistry of the two leads, both of whom are openly gay. Groff’s done award-winning musical comedy Broadway roles, but hasn’t been well-served on television (including the brief soporific HBO series “Looking”) often coming across as whiny or wishy washy. He finally gets to play a charming confident swooner, yet he’s almost understated due to his fragility related to trauma he experienced in his childhood.
Soni excels at revealing the physical discomforts of Naveen conveying his repressed emotions and the pain of exposing unsaid truths within his family. If ever there was a film that argues for the importance of using gay actors in gay roles, “A Nice Indian Boy” can serve as Exhibit A.
The real revelation is scene-stealer Garg, who in India is known as a comic; this is her first dramatic role. Her speech at the movie’s end will have you reaching for the Kleenex. Patel barely registers in the first half of the movie, but shows a surprising emotional range also towards the finale. His scene with Groff in the kitchen will also rip out your heart. You know you have a great company of actors when the richness of the supporting characters rivals those of the main protagonists.
The script by gay screenwriter Eric Randall (who’s planning a wedding with his longtime boyfriend) based on the same-titled play by Madhuri Shekar, manages to infuse all the contradictory feelings that come with a family meeting their gay son’s partner as well as intercultural difficulties, but always humorously and heartwarming without being syrupy. The characters seem real and relatable, not caricatures.
In the press notes, Sethi confesses that his upcoming marriage (which his mother has asked not to proceed) is with Soni, so we see how personally the film’s plot mirrors the creators of this rom-com. It’s also obvious these are cherished characters combined with a passion for Indian culture and Bollywood cinema. “A Nice Boy from India” is a very nice, exceptional, enjoyable crowd-pleasing queer love story we’ve been waiting for and wanting.
‘A Nice Indian Boy’ opens April 3 at AMC Kabuki 8 in San Francisco.
www.wayfarerstudios.com
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