GLR July-August 2025

Love across Cultures, with a Twist

A NICE INDIAN BOY is an exu berant film as well as a touching celebration of unconventional romantic love defying expecta tions. Director Roshan Sethi’s film also touches upon issues of family loyalty, cul tural misunderstanding, and intergenera tional conflict.

moved by the fact that Jay was raised by Indian parents and is fully acculturated into Hindu customs and beliefs. In his even-tempered demeanor, Jay seems more Hindu than the anxious Naveen. For his part, Naveen is caught between loyalty to his family and his life in the outside world. He and Jay have a fight, question

B RIAN B ROMBERGER

A Nice Indian Boy Directed by Roshan Sethi Levan ti neFilms

ing everything about the relationship. Jay observes: “You’re almost apologizing for the inconvenience of existing.” Jay moves out of their flat. Can they reconcile? Much of the film focuses on Naveen’s family’s reaction to him and Jay as a couple. A Nice Indian Boy is basically an opposites-attract romance between the inhibited Naveen and the extroverted Jay: the dour realist versus the hopeless romantic. The fact that Jay’s character isn’t as richly developed as Naveen’s could be seen as a flaw, though in fairness this film is also about how an im

Naveen Gavaskar (played by Karan Soni) is a shy, intro verted, gay doctor. He’s using dating apps with little luck. (One text reads: “Guess you’ve been eating an apple a day be cause you’ve kept this doctor away.”) His boisterous mother Megha, taciturn father Archit, and married but divorcing sis ter Arundhathi know and accept that he’s gay, but don’t quite know how to be supportive. He relies primarily on his fellow doctor and bestie Paul to kvetch and tell him the new rules of gay dating. While worshipping Ganesha (the Hindu god of new be

migrant family adapts to American mores, especially when they clash directly with traditional Indian values. The film is enhanced by the palpable chemistry of the two lead actors, both of whom are openly gay. Groff captures Jay as a charming, confident, pas sionate young man who never theless conveys a sense of fragility related to his child hood trauma. Soni excels at re vealing Naveen’s discomfort as he wrestles with repressed emotions and the need to deal with newly exposed truths within his family. The script by gay screen writer Eric Randall (who hap pens to be planning a wedding with his own longtime boy friend) is based on Madhuri

Karan Soni and Jonathan Groff in A Nice Indian Boy.

Shekar’s play (same title) and manages to capture the contra dictory feelings that result from clashes of two incompatible cultures, with the added twist that one of the partners may be “white” as a racial category but outdoes Naveen as a practi tioner of Hindu folkways. In the press notes, Roshan Sethi confesses that his up coming marriage (which his mother has opposed) is with Karan Soni, so we see how personally the film’s plot mirrors the creators of this romcom. It’s also obvious these are cher ished characters who share a passion for Indian culture and Bollywood cinema. A Nice Indian Boy is a crowd-pleasing queer love story that’s both pleasant escape and a serious ex ploration of current issues.

ginnings) at a temple, Naveen spots Jay Kurundkar (Jonathan Groff), a white man who grew up in foster care until he was adopted by two Indian parents, now dead. 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 serenading romanticism. They fall in love, but Jay is upset: “Naveen didn’t tell his fam ily about me, so it’s like I don’t exist.” Jay meets the Gavaskars, but it doesn’t go well. His par ents weren’t expecting the boyfriend to be white and seem un Brian Bromberger is a freelance writer who works as a staff reporter and arts critic for The Bay Area Reporter . 50

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