A Nice Indian Boy — Arjun Desai

We saw a wonderful film this week: A Nice Indian Boy.

It stars Karan Soni as Naveen, an Indian American, who brings home a white boyfriend named Jay (Jonathan Groff) to his traditional Indian family.

It’s a fantastic story that effortlessly weaves between themes of belonging, identity, expectations, and stereotypes. Growing up South Asian, it filled me with emotion — as many of us grappled with what “nice” and “Indian” meant.

I left the movie thinking about two things. 1) love is boundless and 2) parents might surprise you when given the chance to grow.

My favorite scene was when Naveen’s dad, Archit, and Jay cook dinner together. Archit is a man of few words and struggles with his feelings towards the situation. Eventually, their connection grows. Archit says that his son Naveen has always been able to recognize beauty in the world, and he now sees so much beauty in Jay.

Highly recommend a watch! Congrats to the director Roshan Sethi for his great work.