The film starts with an Indian wedding of Arundhati getting arranged marriage to a soon-to-be surgeon, a catch for any girl. The parent are overjoyed and everyone keeps posting to the brother Naveen, reminding him that he is next. He is gay, which his parents gingerly accept. However, it is his family’s culture not to discuss feelings, fears, or conflicts, and he is very uncomfortable with them, as well as with pretty much everyone else, including himself. Naveen is a doctor, but is also awkward man with no dating game. We hear him leave an excruciatingly cringe series of voicemail messages for potential dates. One day he sees a white guy at the temple and to his surprise he shows up later at his work to take photographs of the employees. The guy is a white man named Jay, who moved homes as a foster child and finally was adopted by an Indian family. After some funny dates, as different as the two men are, the duo start to date and soon even move in together. Although Jay yearns for a family, he is quite upset that Naveen has not introduced him to his family. When he finally decides to introduce him to his family and his loving parents, he is so preoccupied by himself, that he fails to see the cracks in his own family. Arundhathi, his sister, is going through a hard time in her marriage and for them their parents are in a loveless marriage which is not the case likely. The meeting doesn't go very well and you can see the discomfort with Naveen, which hurts Jay so much that he leaves. Of course, after some funny and some very emotional scenes, Naveen is able to win back over Jay and we then see how Naveen's family slowly accept Jay into their family and the film ends with a big fat Indian wedding. The film may fall 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.
As a study of a middle-class Indian American family, “A Nice Indian Boy” is gently funny and quite moving at the same time and did I say, I LOVED the film. It navigates cultural nuances and romance with an infectiously kind heart that is very easy to connect with. Split into 4 chapters (The Boy, The Love, The Family and The Wedding), some viewers may feel that there is very little romance, but I was ok with it. Because this film was going to be more about family. Jay tells Naveen he is looking for more than “two people going it alone clinging together like they’re in life rafts.” He longs for the sense of home and community he felt growing up in an Indian family. He sees Naveen’s awkwardness as a universal mix of longing and terror when it comes to intimacy, saying, “I think we’re all a little bit embarrassed by the bigness of love.” There are some genuinely good scenes in the film. All scenes where we see the popular standup Zarna Garg being the protective mother to her son, or when Jay starts singing DDLJ song in the middle of the street making Naveen very embarrassed, the heartfelt conversation between sister-brother etc. As a family, we don't see Naveen's family as a picture perfect family that a lot of immigrant Indian families try to be, instead try to hold onto the traditions they respect, the children who didn’t pan out the way they hoped and planned, and the needs of everyone old and young alike to adjust to life between old values and modern emotional demands.
From a plot perspective, there really isn’t anything new here. There’s the usual second act misunderstanding, the family dinner that goes horribly awry, the sad break-up and the indulgent scene where the two lovers reunite. But what makes the film shine is probably the fact that the on screen and behind the camera crew are largely Indian and some of them gay, giving the film a lived-in knowledge of in-jokes and traditions. The lead actor playing Naveen in real life is married to the director and they make the cutest couple. As actors the two leads do a wonderful job. They are so natural, endearing and relentlessly honest that they meld like coffee and cream. There’s poignancy in the love they share when they are together, and in the pain they feel when they’re apart, and I seriously doubt there’s a soul in the audience who won’t root for them to make it. There’s also a lot of tenderness and humor in the courtship and the eventual wedding you won’t forget. Their first date doesn't go very well but I snot terrible either. 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. And this is something you do not get to see very often. Jay keeps his heart on his sleeve, while Naveen's awkwardness is visible when we see him leave some cringy messages for potential dates. It’s pure joy watching Naveen grow and learn to experience what Jay calls “the bigness of love.” His journey will be recognizable, not just to gay men, but to anyone who was once afraid to trust that the person they love will love them back with the same fervor. That aside, the film is also an adorable tale of a family navigating changes without losing love for each other. This one hits very close to home. (9/10)
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