Seen as a reflection of his own journey of acceptance and the nuances of navigating cultural expectations, director Roshan Sethi (7 Days) was eager to helm A Nice Indian Boy, an adaptation of Madhuri Shekar’s stage play. He cast his partner Karan Soni (best known for the Deadpool trilogy) in the lead role of Naveen Gavaskar—a doctor (like Sethi himself) who grew up suppressing his sexuality. The film focuses on a man who, even after coming out to his family, still carries the weight of having long denied his desires and continues to live in a way that minimizes his presence.
He meets Jay (Jonathan Groff), a white man adopted by an Indian family who, after years of rejection, is now looking for true love. But falling for someone like Jay forces Naveen to reexamine the quiet, invisible life he’s built. From there, the film follows familiar rom-com beats, but spices them with Indian family traditions being gently (and sometimes awkwardly) challenged. Much like in Ms. Marvel, where Kamala’s parents had to accept her newfound powers, Naveen’s parents are as understanding as they can be—yet once he introduces his white boyfriend, you get the feeling they might have preferred he was secretly a superhero instead.
Examining the cultural clash of traditional Indians living in America provides just the right blend of sweetness and tension to create engaging, often funny situations. The characters are well established and charismatic, and the central conflicts feel mostly genuine—save for one scene where Naveen’s sister comes on a little too strong. That said, the second half can feel a bit dramatically repetitive, as each character goes through a similar arc of accepting one another after a single heartfelt conversation (first Jay, then the sister, then the mom, and so on). While the beats are familiar, they’re still moving thanks to Sethi’s own lived experience guiding the emotional truth of those moments.
The central romance doesn’t work as well as the cultural aspects, though. Groff’s character is partly to blame here. He does fine with what he’s given—though his performance feels a bit too close to his Knock at the Cabin role—but the script barely scratches the surface of who Jay really is. The film seems far more interested in Naveen’s family. A deeper glimpse into Jay’s world (a conversation with his own friends, perhaps?) would’ve added emotional depth and made their final connection feel more earned. The film also could’ve used more consistent laughs. Most of the humor is left to Naveen’s dad, whose deadpan reactions offer chuckles, but there are no big comedic standouts.
Still, cultural clashes like these always make for compelling dynamics, and Harish Patel and Zarna Garg do much of the emotional heavy lifting in the third act, delivering some of the film’s most touching moments. By the end, it’s exactly what the title promises: a nice little story about not one, but two nice Indian boys—nothing more, nothing less.