Pgh Lesbian Correspondents

Spoilerish.

Like most of Gen X, I adore a good romcom. It is a pleasure to add a lovely, quality film like ‘A Nice Indian Boy’ to the queer romcom canon, a canon that has often let me down (I’m looking at you, Happiest Christmas) but includes gems such as Fire Island, But I’m a Cheerleader, The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love, and

This lovely boy meets boy flick has a sweet romance between Indian-American Naveen, (Karan Soni) a hardworking doctor and dutiful son, and photographer Jay, a white man adopted and raised by Indian parents. Jay is fully immersed in Hindi culture, linguistically and more, thanks to his deep love and respect for his departed parents. He steps carefully but with confidence into Naveen’s family dynamic.

Clearly smitten, Naveen overcomes his family’s distant nature to introduce Jay at a weekly dinner.

Naveen has an older sister, Arundhathi (Sunita Mani) coping with a divorce from within an arranged marriage. Naveen is oblivious to her attempts to seek support from him, keeping her at arm’s length. Their parents,  Zarna Garg as Megha, and Harish Patel as Archit on the surface seem a traditional Indian couple who are not thrilled with a gay son or a divorcee daughter. But that surface is easy to misread as the couple strives mightily to connect with their children and create their own Indian-American experience.

What is framed as an arranged marriage for Aarundhathi was actually a blind date set up by parents who themselves had only met on the eve of their own wedding. They love each other and their family, tiptoeing around the fear of alienating Naveen. Setting up their daughter was an attempt to help, not control. Tiptoeing around Naveen, the same.

Jay’s informed but fresh presence opens lines of communications among the family, revealing stories and experiences they all held tight to protect each other. The distance between them was from the silence they each held, not a lack of love or acceptance. Jay asks respectful informed questions, opening up a new understanding of the Indian-American experience.

Of course there are misunderstandings, big romantic gestures, and Bollywood. Of course the happy couple deserves the big beautiful wedding they both wanted, but even more so.

The tradition of an Indian family portrait creates one of the movie’s most profound moments when Archit visit’s the art exhibition of Jay, unphased by the gay eroticism. His eyes are drawn to the family portrait of Jay with his parents. His reverence in that moment for the family who brought this important person into the life of his own son is palpable. It leads to a lovely bittersweet exchange between the two characters, paving the way for the delightfully unexpected ending scenes.

Jay helped the four characters reconnect as a family so they welcome and celebrate him as he sits surrounded only by friend.

Garg is a delightful content creator on Instagram, Patel a staple character actor in Indian and British genres, and Sunita Mani is known from her role on GLOW among others. Jonathan Groff, best known as King George in Hamilton, is terrific as Jay.

This is such a sweet, lovely film that you should add to your romcom revisits. These five characters are backed by a lineup of delightful chums and pals, veering close to the best parts of chosen family stereotypes without veering over.

Zarna Garg definitely fills up every scene she’ s in from beginning to end. She’s hilarious and has excellent timing. But I still think the understated Patel delivers the emotional punch of the film.

The interesting bit about this film is that is simply somewhere in the United States. We don’t know where. We don’t know much about Naveen’s medical practice or how his parents earned a living. Who are all of these friend/family of choice characters in their infinite representative moments? There’s no token bestir, there are multiple friend characters.

Perhaps most important of all – the movie does not play up the fact that Jay’s Indian parents adopted an older white male child. No one explains it. It isn’t kitschy or played for laughs. Jay is quite comfortable within Indian-American culture. He honors his parents by watching their favorite film, eating their dishes, honoring them with religious rites. The only crack is when Jay mentions he was bounded around foster homes until his parents chose him.

I’m sure there’s an entirely different story there, a prequel versus a sequel.