Film Review: "A Nice Indian Boy"
The new romantic comedy is a gem of a film, equal parts moving, hilarious, and poignant, with heartfelt performances from Karan Soni and Jonathan Groff.
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Warning: Full spoilers for the film follow.
A Nice Indian Boy is one of those films that’s been on my to-watch list for quite a while now, and I finally got around to watching it. I think it’s safe to say that this is one of my favorite queer films of 2025, thanks to some spectacular performances from all of the members of the cast, a story that grapples with some pretty important issues, some heartfelt and deeply poignant moments, and lots of hilarity.
Naveen Gavaskar (Karan Soni) is a doctor who yearns for a nice Indian wedding with the man of his dreams. While his parents, Megha and Archit (Zarna Garg and Harish Patel) are loving and accepting, Naveen can’t quite escape the feeling that they view his sexuality as an embarrassment. His sister, Arundhathi (Sunita Mani) ends up in an arranged marriage, though deep unhappiness ensues. Naveen, however, manages to strike up a relationship with Jay (Jonathan Groff), though things are complicated by his own insecurities, and it takes quite a lot of negotiation and emotional turmoil before the two end up back together.
There are many moments of genuine hilarity. Many of these revolve around Naveen’s fellow doctor and best friend Paul (Peter S. Kim), but Soni also shows that he has remarkable comedic timing and delivery, particularly in an early scene in which he attempts to reach out to several acquaintances, only to deliver increasingly deranged voice memos. Soni has such gorgeous eyes and such an expressive face that he makes you love him and laugh with/at him at the same time. It probably goes without saying, but there are also several hilarious scenes with the parents, including the excruciating moment when Naveen finally brings Jay to meet them, after which various misunderstandings and problems ensue.
At the same time, there were many moments that had me in tears (no real surprise there, of course). In one of the film’s most meaningful scenes, Jay and Naveen, having had their first major fight, end up reconciling and confessing their mutual desire to get married, all while their friends look on. This is one of those moments that relies on the strength of the acting to make it land, and both Soni and Groff more than deliver in this regard. These are two souls who, somehow, have managed to find one another and, even though they are seated at opposite ends of the table, so palpable is the chemistry between these two men that it practically leaps off the screen.
This chemistry is evident from the moment that the two meet at a temple to Ganesh, though it really emerges when they meet again at the hospital, where Jay is taking photographs Not even a very awkward first date–complete with Jay singing a Bollywood song to an abashed and embarrassed Naveen in the middle of the street–is enough to keep them from bonding. There are, of course, some fits and starts and some bumps along the way, but somehow they make it work.
Theirs is, indeed, a union of opposites, but this is precisely what makes them so good for one another. Naveen gives the more free-spirited Jay the grounding he needs, particularly since so much of his life has been marked by instability and loss. It’s for this reason that Naveen’s refusal to talk about what he needs–let alone to be honest with his family about his love life–strikes Jay as such a betrayal. As he soulfully and sadly puts it after the ill-starred first meeting with the Gavaskars, he knows when a family doesn’t want him and when it’s time to move on. Given that, as we already know, he spent a great deal of his youth in various foster homes before his elderly Indian parents adopted him, this moment is particularly devastating. And, when it comes down to it, few can play sad gay boy quite as well or as movingly as Groff (I also appreciate that he’s become quite a thicc boy. Those biceps…woof!)
It’s also true, as Jay forcefully reminds Naveen, that the latter tends to move through the world as if he is afraid of being noticed. Just as importantly, he also astutely observes that Naveen is embarrassed, and perhaps even frightened, of the sheer bigness of love as an emotion and as a state of being. This is where Soni’s acting skills are put to their most effective use, because watching the way that he seems to shrink in on himself whenever he’s in the room with other large personalities–whether that’s his mother or his sister or Jay’s friends–you can see that Jay has put his finger on exactly Naveen’s central personality crisis.
A Nice Indian Boy also contends with some other serious issues, particularly revolving around the tension between queerness and traditional family. Naveen, like many millennials, has a take-no-prisoners attitude when it comes to his parents and their attitudes regarding his sexuality, which means that he tends to project his own insecurities onto his parents, with predictably negative results. In a truly remarkable scene, his mother reprimands himself for exactly this attitude–and for arguing that his parents are in a loveless marriage–and this moment serves as a reminder to both Naveen and his sister, and to the audience, to be wary of assuming you know what others are thinking and how they view the world. When you meet people where they are, and when you're willing to extend just a bit of grace, you never know what might happen.
This leads to a tender and heartfelt moment between Archit and Jay, in which the latter not only bestows his blessing but also speaks openly of his love and pride in his son. It would have been very easy for Harish Patel to have played the father in a stereotypical or one-dimensional way. Instead, there’s a world of emotion going on under that seemingly placid and stern surface, and I love the fact that these two men–so different in many ways–bond over not only their mutual love of Naveen but also their own tough upbringing by their own fathers, neither of whom wanted their sons to live their lives on their own terms.
While Groff and Soni deserve the lion’s share of the credit when it comes to the performances, I would be remiss if I didn’t also acknowledge some of the other standouts. Peter S. Kim is nothing short of delightful as Naveen’s best friend and fellow doctor, Paul and, in true rom-com tradition, he often threatens to steal the show whenever he appears. Naveen’s family are also in the hands of wonderful performers, and in addition to Patel I was also blown away by Zarna Garg’s performance as Megha. She finds just the right note between sincere and silly, and I love how she moves so effortlessly through these registers. Sunita Mani is also superb as Arundhathi, and I would love to see an entire film about her own search for love.
As one might expect, it all ends happily, with a third-act reunion and a wedding ceremony that is beautifully staged and executed without ever being trite or cliche. The ceremony is the perfect blending of tradition and modernity, and there’s something particularly heartwarming about the sight of Naveen’s Indian family gathered together to celebrate this extraordinary union. Despite all of their differences, and despite the fact that they come from different worlds, somehow Naveen and Jay have managed to forge their own sort of happiness. This is a film that will make you cry and make you laugh and make you swoon and that, I think, is a very nice gift, indeed.