A Nice Indian Boy Review: LFF 2024

Karan Soni and Jonathan Groff charm in fluffy romcom A Nice Indian Boy

It’s harder than the streaming giants would have you believe to make a good romcom – building a believable romance between characters you actually root for whilst giving the story both heart and jokes – it’s a genre that’s generally full of duds. So when a good one comes along it deserves your interest.

A Nice Indian Boy is a good romcom from director Roshan Sethi. Adapting from a play by Madhuri Shekar, he casts his real-life partner Karan Soni as the lead, desperately single doctor Naveen. Usually relegated to comic side kick, Soni makes for an appealing leading man and more than proves he has the charisma to carry a whole movie.

We meet Naveen at his sister Arundhati’s (Sunita Mani) extravagant wedding, where busybody relatives keep reassuring him ‘’you’ll be next’’ while Naveen laments that he will never find a nice Indian boy of his own. A few years later and the introvert’s life is rocked when he meets Jay (the reliably charming Jonathan Groff) a photographer raised by Indian parents, and the two quickly fall in love. Jay is a larger-than-life character, dragging Naveen out of his shell with his loud and unapologetic love of Bollywood movies, grand romantic gestures and happily ever afters.

Naveen is plagued by worry when it comes to introducing Jay to his parents, who he says know he’s gay but have never met any of his boyfriends and ‘’never seen him actually be gay.’’ His mother Megha (stand up comedian Zarna Garg) and father Archit (beloved character actor Harish Patel) try desperately to be accepting of their son’s relationship, but predictably the road to these characters really understanding each other is not without its bumps. For the most part A Nice Indian Boy isn’t so much concerned with the romance, that part comes easily for its leads, but rather the way in which Naveen’s love story affects his relationship with his family.

The love story for its part retreads familiar but well-loved tropes. Anxious and apologetic Naveen is initially put off by the terrifyingly earnest Jay, the sort of man who thinks nothing of bursting into song in the middle of the street and talking about his dream wedding on a first date. As the two spend more time together, it’s a surprise to no one that the affable golden retriever of a man starts to convince his aloof black cat of a partner to let go of his self-doubt and start making grand gestures of his own.

The jokes zing easily though the writing doesn’t feel much deeper than that of a decent sitcom – there’s your usual comical misunderstandings about Jay’s ethnicity, and Naveen’s parents constantly watching Out TV at home in an effort to show their son they are supportive lands some major laughs. With a few choice one liners Garg’s Megha and Naveen’s best friend Paul (Peter S. Kim) steal pretty much every scene they’re in, and of course we manage to fit in a few scenes of Groff singing.

A Nice Indian Boy isn’t really anything deeper than you might expect going in, but it’s clearly been made with love by all involved, and it is, genuinely, nice. An earnestly sweet film where none of the conflicts are too overblown, it’s a charming easy watch that is sure to find its way into the hearts of its audience. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a few tears.

A Nice Indian Boy is playing at the BFI London Film Festival 2024. It’s release details have yet to be confirmed.