“A Nice Indian Boy” is a warm feel-good romantic comedy that begins and ends with a wedding. At an Indian wedding, an Indian American doctors Naveen Gavaskar (Karan Soni) thinks how lucky his sister was to find a nice Indian boy to marry. With his older sister married, this nice Indian boy muses that he too would like to marry  “A Nice Indian Boy.”

You’re wondering how the dreamy Jonathan Groff figures into this scenario. Eric Randall and playwright Madhuri Shekar consider how and what culture is, introducing Jay Kurunkar (Groff) as a victim of the foster care system who found a family when he was adopted by an Indian American couple. Now orphaned, he embraces the culture of his adoptive parents. The meet-cute takes place at an Indian Hindu temple.

Jay, a photographer, ends up at Naveen’s workplace, on staff photo day. Naveen is shy, but Jay is self-assured. While Naveen might be slightly distancing himself from the Indian culture, Jay embraces it. Jay loves the 1995 Hindi-language musical romance, “Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge,” also known as “DDLJ.”  DDLJ is a romantic musical among the well-to-do Indians. Boy (Raj played by Shahrukh Khan) meets girl (Simran played by Kajol) meet in Europe during a vacation. Circumstances through them together, but Simran must return to India for her arranged marriage. Raj flies to India to not only win Simran but to charm her whole family and get the blessings of her father (Amrish Puri).

Musical theater lovers will swoon at the thought of Groff possibly dancing Bollywood. That doesn’t happen, but Groff does get to do a little singing and there’s a sweet chemistry between Soni and Groff. Their love will have some roadblocks, including the sarcastic older sister (Sunita Mani as Arundhathi), but ultimately, as promised, we’ll get to the wedding and there will be some dancing (low-key family fun and not Broadway or Bollywood production level).

Jay comments, “I think we’re all a little embarrassed by the bigness of love” and the whole film is a gentle comedy that celebrates love in all its forms, including arranged marriage of Nareen’s parents (Harish Patel and Zarna Garg). It should be noted that India does not currently recognize same-sex marriage.

While the diversity is decidedly Indian American, there’s also representation of other Asian Americans with Peter S. Kim playing Paul, Nareen’s bestie at work and African Americans are represented by Keith Dallas as the Head Nurse.

As Arundhathi says, “The easiest thing to believe in is love,” and if you like to believe in love in all of its forms, “A Nice Indian Boy” is a comfortable and comforting comedy.  “A Nice Indian Boy” had its world premiere at South by Southwest Film Festival on 12 March 2024.  It was released on 4 April 2025 in the US and is currently playing in theaters in Los Angeles.