An incisive expression of family and culture that neither apologizes nor over-explains itself, Roshan Sethi’s A Nice Indian Boy is a riotous, moving queer romantic comedy with a wildly unique premise. While it resembles many modern third-culture stories — specifically, tales of disconnect between first-generation South Asians in the West and their immigrant parents — it widens its scope in surprising ways that reflect and refract both personal and cinematic identity.
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Taking inspiration from a romantic Bollywood classic, the film follows a gay Indian American doctor whose parents are nominally accepting, but who want him to find “a nice Indian boy.” Long story short: He does! The immediate wrinkle, however, is that this nice Indian boy is none other than Jonathan Groff — yes, Hamilton‘s original King George — playing a white man raised by Indian parents.
On one hand, A Nice Indian Boy is the tale of a typical Indian American family, with typical Indian American problems — a generational disconnect, gendered double standards, and a culture of awkward silence around sexuality — but on the other hand, its evolution into grand romantic saga is anything but typical. It’s also a story of cross-cultural adoption that dovetails into not only a hilariously awkward meet-the-parents comedy, but also a film about freeing oneself from emotional and generational baggage, in a way that yields tears of joy and laughter.
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