“A Nice Indian Boy” Film Review

I left the Luna Leederville theatre grinning ear to ear with tears in my eyes after this one.

Naveen, child of stern Indian parents and uncomfortable in his own skin, wonders during his “perfect” sister’s ceremony when he will find love. The dream, massive oversaturated technicolour wedding filled with smiling faces, choreographed dancing, and pure contentment, “wanting for nothing”.

Enter Jay, an orphan raised in Indian culture. Also a man. But most controversially for Naveen’s parents? He neglected to mention he’s white before introducing them to each other.

This sweet, funny. gorgeous movie starring Karan Soni (“Deadpool”!) Jonathan Groff (“Mindhunter”, “Knock at the Cabin”), and Sunita Mani (“Death of a Unicorn”) was adapted from a play by Madhuri Shekar and now suits the film medium well as a bite sized rom com at roughly an hour and a half.

I’ll spoil nothing. This is a film filled with lovely music, colour, plenty of cackling laughter moments from my particular audience, karaoke montages, awkward meals, light and sometimes overblown drama, some great acting amidst new emerging talent switching over from stand up to acting (no wonder Naveen’s mum, played by Zarna Garg, delivered such a hilarious speech), and of course corny Bollywood scenes.

The perfect accompaniment to a nice date night.

Seven out of ten stars

P.S. apparently for the charmingly cringy, awkward date scene where Naveen is serenaded by Jay (before he learns of his upbringing), Jonathan Groff was only supposed to learn a few lines from the song “Tujhe Dehka Toh”, taken from Bollywood classic sang by Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol in “Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge” (DDLJ). Groff recited the entire song to the bewilderment of Karan Soni, the crew, and onlookers!

P.P.S. your viewing experience will be greatly complemented by following it up immediately with DDLJ. Many cameos are sprinkled throughout A Nice Indian Boy, but its family drama is tame in comparison to this bewildering pillar of Bollywood.

By Gayle O’Leary. If you’d like to catch up on more by Gayle here on Fremantle Shipping News, look right here!

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