Jonathan Groff is perfect in gay rom-com

Jonathan Groff’s latest portrait of queer love may be sentimental, but A Nice Indian Boy is a gay rom-com that will warm your heart.

Based on Madhuri Shekar’s play, adapted for the screen by writer Eric Randall, A Nice Indian Boy is bookended by celebrations of unity.

We meet the lovable doctor Naveen (Karan Soni) at his sister’s wedding as every guest approaches him with the proclamation: “You’re next!” Naveen’s search for “a nice Indian boy” of his own continues six years later, sort of.

Naveen has succumbed to his existence as an awkward, lonely doctor, declaring: “I don’t want to hear sweeping notions of love. It’s 2024, the world is burning!” However, that cynicism is short-lived when he meets the photographer tasked with taking his new hospital headshot – the same brown-haired man he’d caught a glimpse of praying at the local temple the day before.

Jonathan Groff (reminding us he should be cast in more rom-coms) plays Jay, a photographer adopted and raised by Indian parents, who cuts through Naveen’s perpetual isolation.

Jay’s unflinching gaze bores into Naveen’s soul and the pair begin a whirlwind romance that quickly leads to an engagement. Naveen may put a ring on it but introducing his white-orphan-artist fiancé to his parents proves a much more daunting task.

Conflict also brews between Naveen’s parents – lovingly portrayed by Harish Patel and Zarna Garg, the film’s secret weapon who insists on explaining the plot of Milk to her gay son.

Director Roshan Sethi introduces new queer and South Asian angles to the rom-com, expanding the film’s focus so that Naveen’s parents are also given ample attention. It’s not a shock that their son is bringing a man home, but a white man stepping foot into their house was not what they were expecting. As it turns out, the first in-laws meeting is a disaster with gay TV and weed vape faux pas – here, the cast’s wicked comedic chops come alive.

The ensemble comedy is rounded out by some hilarious breakaway scenes with Naveen’s work BFF Paul (Peter S. Kim) and Naveen’s sister Sunita (Arundhathi Gavaskar), whose experience of being under perpetual stress to get pregnant creates a touching subplot.

Lifting the film is the great chemistry between Soni and Groff: Naveen’s pessimism clashes with Jay’s hopeful exuberance in a pitch-perfect tone balanced by these two gay actors.

They lean into the early 2000s rom-com formula and though there are moments it teeters into sit-com territory, the playfulness pays off. For instance, Jay sings to Naveen in the street on their first date, imitating the 1995 musical romance Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (DDLJ) they have just seen. From awkward giggling to sweet romance, the performances are the mainstay of A Nice Indian Boy.

The sheer outpouring of love Sethi has invested in this film results in a contagious, warmhearted celebration of love. Avoiding weighty cynicism or navel-gazing, A Nice Indian Boy’s strength comes with the appreciation of familial bonds that are as essential as romance.

Sensitively navigating generational division, A Nice Indian Boy is the charming gay rom-com we need right now.

A Nice Indian Boy was screened at the London Film Festival. It does not currently have a release date.