Dir: Roshan Sethi | Cast: Karan Soni, Jonathan Groff | India, Drama 2024
Roshan Sethi’s A Nice Indian Boy is a feel good film edited into chapters with titles including love, music and family, for no obvious reason as the story, about two gay men Naveen ( Karan Soni) and Jay (Jonathan Groff), unfolds as they hesitantly but gradually fall in love.
With Indian family traditions to be honoured and a marriage to be arranged that will involve familial consent this is a comedy with a slice of social comment that finds perceptive moments of depth. These are linked to a brother/sister relationship and in particular to Jay, who is a white gay man, raised by adoptive Indian parents and how this will impact on his Indian partner’s family and friends.
The film is based on a Canadian stage play quite possibly derived from a real-life situation which places A Nice Indian Boy rather neatly into a gender-based social comedy. Feelgood traditions of Brit films like My Beautiful Launderette and Unicorns mixed with a dose of the original successful concept in My Big Fat Greek Wedding.
Themes relating to class, love, gender and social cohesion/division of a universal nature provide the film, which is mostly soft and generous in tone, with moments of observant introspection aided by the skilful handling of the film’s entire ensemble casting. Peter Herbert
LONDON FILM FESTIVAL REVIEW 2024 | A UK release is set for early 2025