‘A Nice Indian Boy’ Spares No Layer of Sentiment
A blandly sweet gay romance, "A Nice Indian Boy," starring Karan Soni and Jonathan Groff, looks great but lacks buoyancy.
Like a warm hug wrapped in a warmer turtleneck, A Nice Indian Boy spares no layer of sentiment limning the love story of two nice Indian boys, Naveen and Jay.
Actually, Jay, played by Looking‘s Jonathan Groff, is a white American orphan who was adopted and raised by an older Indian couple.
They’ve since passed on, but Jay is still the nice Indian boy whom Naveen (Karan Soni) brings home to meet his traditional parents, Megha (stand-up comedian Zarna Garg) and Archit (Harish Patel), and his moody older sister, Arundhathi (Sunita Mani).
The featured meet-the-parents encounter follows a generously paced first act, in which hospital doctor Naveen and professional photographer Jay almost meet-cute praying in front of the Ganesh altar at a Hindu temple. It’s practically love at first sight, a mutual epiphany of interest and attraction that Soni and Groff make both cute and credible.
Directed by Roshan Sethi and written by Eric Randall, who adapted the play by Madhuri Shekhar, A Nice Indian Boy parcels out the pair’s ensuing romance and familial conflicts over several chapters, maintaining a lighthearted sweetness even when the story turns mildly serious. Though the only really serious conflict would seem to be whatever is happening offscreen in sis Arundhathi’s marriage to handsome Manish (Sachin Sahel).
She’s dealing with something, and it only adds grit to her bitter indignation over seeing her parents generally be so tolerant and supportive with Naveen, when they’ve always been so strict with her. The script hammers hard on the point — in turn, Mani gives the film’s fiercest performance.
Not surprisingly, comedian Garg gives the film’s funniest performance, or, shall we say, the film’s one funny performance. She consistently generates laughs, and transmits tremendous empathy, as a more or less traditional mom doing the work to open her mind and heart. Megha and Archit watch OUTtv to broaden their understanding of queer life, and her eagerness to discuss all things Milk, after seeing the movie, is adorable.
There’s little doubt that Megha and Archit, who’s much less enthusiastic about waving the proverbial rainbow flag, will come around, one way or another. So the chief conflict, beyond intercultural acceptance, lies in Naveen learning to accept his parents into his gay life, and start being himself out loud.
As he points out in voiceover narration, his parents have adjusted to having a gay son, but they’ve never seen him be gay around a partner. He’s kept that part of his life hidden from them entirely. It’s like coming out again, one small step that’s a giant leap for him, for lots of queer people, and, really, anyone who feels different from their parents.
The movie handles these themes with insight and sensitivity, if not much cinematic texture, except for Amy Vincent’s vibrant cinematography and the costumes by Florence Barrett. Otherwise, the movie forgoes geographic specificity — they just live in Some City, USA — and is woefully short on sensual detail.
If, for example, characters are in a kitchen emotionally bonding over preparing a meal, the Stanley Tucci school of savory shotmaking says the audience should see the dish, smell it, taste it. Instead, we get only close-ups of eaters forking the food into their mouths, and a stiff setup to the scene’s pivotal line of dialogue.
A certain stiffness permeates A Nice Indian Boy‘s final act, loaded with a series of stagy, heartfelt speeches, and capped off by a wedding dance number stiffer than some of the monologues. The sum effect is of a nice, inoffensive romance, PG enough to bring home to mom, sprinkled with enough “Slay, mama!” humor to seem fabulously gay for your straight friends who watch Drag Race.
A Nice Indian Boy (★★☆☆☆) is playing in select theaters nationwide, including at the AMC Hoffman Center 22 in Alexandria, VA. Visit www.fandango.com.
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