A Nice Indian Boy is a refreshing take on the queer romcom

Maybe it's just me, but I can't remember the last time a romcom's had me with butterflies in my tummy, giggling and kicking my feet over a fictional couple.

It's as if romantic comedies have lost their spark since the beginning of this decade. (Did the pandemic really knock all of the romantic whimsy out of us?) So when I turned on A Nice Indian Boy on a whim, I didn't expect that, ninety minutes later, I'd be sobbing over a romcom.

A Nice Indian Boy, directed by Roshan Sethi, is based on a play of the same name by Madhuri Shekar. It's about the bashful Naveen (Karan Soni) who dreams of a traditional Indian wedding. However, when he does find romantic love, he needs to figure out how to introduce his family to his white-artist boyfriend (Jonathan Groff).

But don't be mistaken. This isn't a coming-out story.

A Nice Indian Boy gets off to a leisurely start. In fact, it remains measured throughout. Lengthy conversations between characters, presumably stemming from its theatrical source, are adapted for the screen in a static manner that doesn't always make for an enthrallingly-paced film. Its rigid compositions, paired with some choppy edits and continuity troubles, can be distracting. But these technical imperfections are easily overlooked when there is such an authentically tender story at this movie's core.

The essence of A Nice Indian Boy lies in its hilarious yet heartfelt performances. Every actor brings a distinct dynamic to each of their relationships. This is a film that is as much about familial love as it is about the romantic kind. It's about Naveen's relationships, but it's also about his boyfriend's, his sister's, and his parents'. Because, after all, even main characters don't exist in a silo of their individual narratives. Their lives, like all of ours, are situated in a web of relationships both personal and peripheral.

While the whole cast is magnetic, it's Naveen's mother, played by Zarna Garg, who is this film's real scene stealer. Garg is, relatively speaking, new to the comedy world. She shifted into a stand-up career in her forties after working as a "really bad" lawyer – her words, not mine. She's since written a best-selling memoir and opened for Tina Fey and Amy Poehler's national tour. A Nice Indian Boy is Garg's acting debut, and in it she proves that her no-nonsense sense of humour translates wonderfully off stage and not without packing an emotional punch too.

It's through Naveen's mother and the rest of his immediate family that the movie's message shines. From his parents and sister, Naveen learns that there is no one true way of showing love. Sometimes love can look like your mother watching the gay TV network because it's the only way she knows how to understand a part of who you are. Other times, it can look like your father changing one of his signature recipes because it's what your boyfriend enjoys.

The stereotypical representation of queer characters, especially of Black and Brown characters, has created predictable storylines and tropes.

We've become accustomed to the queerness of these characters being their central dilemma and the root of their narrative conflicts: Am I gay? How do I come out to my family? What if my community doesn't accept me? Although we still need and will continue to need these stories, A Nice Indian Boy is a refreshing take on the queer romcom genre.

A Nice Indian Boy is not concerned with coming to terms with a character's identity. Instead, this is a film that grapples with the push and pull of relationships that are, as in reality, always in flux. It's an enduring and layered inquiry into how a person's insecurities get entangled in their sense of how they're perceived by their loved ones – mounting walls for emotional defence where none are needed.

But, most importantly, A Nice Indian Boy is not just about finding new love. It's also about finding ways to cultivate existing love – whether romantic or familial – through compromise and unconditional compassion.

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