A Nice Indian Boy

How refreshing it is when a small film with a big heart comes along unannounced and captures your affection.

In this vibrant addition to cinema’s romantic landscape, love isn’t the only winner: cultural understanding and the freedom to choose your own path triumph as well.

It’s a crowdpleaser that will plaster a smile on your face from beginning to end with a high chance of some tears. Just when it teeters on overly saccharine territory, its hilarious script and earnest performances dial it back.

What makes “A Nice Indian Boy” shine are the performances and the sharp writing by Eric Randall.

A Nice Indian Boy is nowhere near the flamboyance of DDLJ, but it brings that same sense of the joy, the anxiety, and yes, the bigness of love to a wonderfully warm-hearted romance.

A Nice Indian Boy is all about subverting stereotypes about Indian culture, both within and outside of the community.

A Nice Indian Boy is filled with enough novel truth to transcend its predictable elements, leaving viewers with a film that feels like a genuine love story, instead of an idealistic imitation.

Começa arrebatador, com u ótimo trabalho de edição e apresentação dos personagens, onde você certamente vai criar conexão com o personagem principal e sua "solidão acompanhada". Mas a partir do segundo ato, você até se incomoda com a forçada de barra, seja para criar um romance perfeito ou na forma como o roteiro provoca o desentendimento. Assim, o filme brinca com esse tom clichê dos romances, é bonito, claro, mas essa inspiração a um conto de fadas tira a força do argumento, tornando tudo muito inócuo. O que poderia ser uma ferramenta importante dadas as ideias iniciais, se transforma num clichezão bem pipoca.

Karan Soni plays a gay doctor who is “mostly” accepted by his traditional Indian family. Things get more complex when he brings home his first boyfriend, a Caucasian who was raised by Indian parents (Jonathan Groff). The film’s trailer sells this as a rom-com, but it’s much more a rom-dram. The only sparks of comedy come from two supporting characters: Zarna Garg, as the constantly concerned mother, and Peter S. Kim, the wise-cracking best friend. Soni handles his character’s conflicts well, while Groff comes off rather blandly as the gentle, understanding beau. Every moment in the narrative is predictable and the slow pace doesn’t help. This story of love and acceptance has been done before with a more original and fun approach. Fortunately, the final wedding does provide a sweetly rewarding ending of an otherwise lackluster love story