A Nice Indian Boy is a beautiful and hilarious new movie from director Roshan Sethi. The script is written by Eric Randall, based on a play of the same name by Madhuri Shekar. Sethi’s movie adaptation stars Karan Soni and Jonathan Groff as an unconventional Indian couple dealing with the family pressures of a traditional South Asian family.
Lead actor Karan Soni might be familiar to audiences from his role as Dopinder the driver in Deadpool and Spider-Man India from Across the Spider-Verse. Jonathan Groff broke out with Hamilton, where he played King George III, though he’s had a steady career in film/TV, and on stage, with notable roles in The Matrix Resurrections, Mindhunter, Glee, and Frozen. A Nice Indian Boy also rounds out its cast with performances from Sunita Mani, Zarna Garg, and Harish Patel from Eternals.
Rosha Sethi is an up-and-coming talent who has directed two films before, 7 Days (2021) and World’s Best (2023). Coincidentally, Sethi is also the fiancé of star Karan Soni, and the movie represents an idealized version of their real-world journey for acceptance from their Hindu families. A Nice Indian Boy is their second collaboration after 7 Days.
Additionally, this movie marks the film writing debut of Eric Randall, a TV writer from Bones. Randall is also gay and religious, and the movie reflects his struggles as well, having been married during the production of the movie. The original playwright Madhuri Shekar is also branching out into film and TV herself, having worked on Netflix’s Three-Body Problem, Amazon’s Evil Eye, and HBO’s The Nevers. With so many great names involved, how does A Nice Indian Boy live up? Read on to find out before it hits theaters on April 4!
Heart, humor, and representation in A Nice Indian Boy
A Nice Indian Boy has so much to love. I was charmed by the music, the heart, the humor, and the intimate details of the representation. The story is relatively straightforward, and even predictable: Jonathan Groff plays Jay, a white boy raised by Indian parents. However, when Karan Soni’s Naveen brings him home to his traditional Indian family, they don’t approve. Is there any way for their relationship to survive?
Of course, you know how it’ll end before the movie even starts, but A Nice Indian Boy is not about the destination, it’s about tackling the questions that face Indian immigrant society in the modern world.
The production design of the temple set and the family home were marvelous to look at, and I loved the exploration of the South Asian-American perspective in this movie. There is an important distinction between South Asian films (like Bollywood) and South Asian-American films. While Bollywood films are far more famous, they are films made specifically in the Indian subcontinent for an Indian audience, like RRR, Lagaan, and Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. However, South Asian-American productions focus on the US immigrant experience, like The Big Sick and Ms. Marvel. This presents an entirely different range of circumstances, which are more specific and unfortunately underrepresented in media.
The divide between South Asian and South Asian-American perspectives becomes especially pronounced when the story focuses on the intergenerational contrast between characters born overseas and their children born in the United States, and this is where A Nice Indian Boy really shines.
I adored the humor, the cute storyline, and the clever twist on a familiar story, but what I really appreciated the most from this movie is how authentically it represented the various points-of-view within a modern South Asian-American family. Every member of Naveen’s family has a unique voice and contributes a meaningful side to the debate at the heart of the movie. While the overall movie feels soft and fuzzy, it still explores deeply important themes in an interesting way. The serious drama blends well with the hilarity of the actor’s performances, and Zarna Garg steals the show as Naveen’s mother.
Some plot and chemistry issues held this rom-com back a bit
Unfortunately, I felt the conflict in the second half was relatively two-dimensional. Groff’s Jay is too dramatic and sensitive. Given the way he was raised, I think he should have been more understanding of the position that Naveen is in with his family’s judgments.
More importantly, there needed to be stronger chemistry between the two leads. The movie assumes that the audience will immediately buy into their love, but it feels as awkward and uncomfortable as a first date, even when the movie tries to push them deeper into their relationship. Of course, Randall uses their relationship as the crux for the thematic questions he’s really interested in, but for a romantic movie, feeling some kind of real romance should be important too.
There’s a lot I really like about how A Nice Indian Boy is made and what it’s exploring, especially within the perspectives of the family, but the main conflicts in the actual plot are weak. At times the movie seems like an unearned, unrealistic fairy tale, and certain conflicts are overcome so easily that it feels a little untruthful.
Lastly, while I appreciate the uptick in South Asian-American media, I was a little bothered that this movie used more than one of the same pop songs as Ms. Marvel from 2022. Given that our diaspora has so much great music and so few film/TV shows, I feel the music supervisors could have used the opportunity to showcase new South Asian-American music (or at minimum, different songs from the same artists).
My verdict on A Nice Indian Boy
In the end, I really enjoyed A Nice Indian Boy. It’s a bit of a silly feel-good story, but it’s asking the right questions and exploring deeper themes that are totally relevant for modern society. This movie has a lot on its mind, and the actors are brilliantly able to carry that weight authentically while giving top-notch comedy performances. This movie itself is not wholly exceptional, but it stands out for being such a well-made romp that also spotlights difficult topics in a part of society that sorely needs this kind of modern representation.
Are you excited to check out A Nice Indian Boy when it comes to theaters on April 4? Have you seen 7 Days or any of the other films from Roshan Sethi yet? Let me know on Bluesky @vinwriteswords and remember to follow the site @MyCosmicCircus on social media, or @TheCosmicCircus on Bluesky!
For my video discussion about this film with John and Brian, watch this video on The Cosmic Circus’ YouTube channel. You can also catch some of our extra material on Patreon!
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