Jonathan Groff And Karan Soni’s Rom-Com A Nice Indian Boy Made Me Ugly Cry About Its Immigrant Parent Storyline, And I Need To Gush About Why

If you ask me, there’s just not enough great rom-coms being made lately. When it comes to 2025 movies, I absolutely adore the new Bridget Jones (even though I’m bummed it didn’t go to U.S. theaters) and had a good time with Heart Eyes fusing the genre with horror. Still, it's worth pointing out there’s an under-the-radar movie coming out to theaters this weekend called A Nice Indian Boy starring Jonathan Groff and Karan Soni, and it really hit me in the feels.

A Nice Indian Boy is one of the few new LGBTQ+ movies hitting cinemas this year. Soni and his real-life partner Rothan Sethi actually took it to Sundance Film Festival after telling me about their plans to make A Nice Indian Boy back in 2022, but it’s so much more than a celebration of queer love. It also has sweet messages about familial love, marriage and acceptance, which all land it a big thumbs up from me.

The Love Story In A Nice Indian Boy Is Genuinely Adorable

Before I get to the element of A Nice Indian Boy that made me cry happy tears, I want to first highlight the romance in the film between Jonathan Groff’s Jay and Karan Soni’s Naveen. Obviously, there have been a lot of high-profile Jonathan Groff roles out there like, but it was a nice change-of-pace to see the Broadway star be the lead in a romantic comedy.

Jay is the adopted son of two Indian parents who’ve passed, making him technically and ironically the “nice Indian boy” the movie’s title is referring to. Naveen is a doctor who is terminally single until he runs into Jay, a freelance photographer who vapes at his temple and during work picture day. The couple soon become inseparable, but as things become more serious Naveen’s fear about having Jay meet his traditionally Indian parents becomes a real problem for the couple.

It’s got everything you want to see from the genre: meet-cutes, heartfelt dialogue, a dramatic falling out, and a fun song and dance sequence.

But, I Was Bawling Over The Storyline Between Naveen And His Parents

It was satisfying to see Naveen and Jay fall in love in A Nice Indian Boy, but what I wasn’t expecting to fall in love with the movie is how the filmmakers handled the storyline regarding Naveen’s parents throughout the film. Whether it be through the depiction of immigrant parents and/or parents of gay children, there’s often this cliché “they don’t understand me” dialogue I personally think the Millennial and Gen-Z generation only perpetuate by shutting out from the narrative in some instances.

It’s easy to do, because yes, oftentimes there's a generational misunderstanding, and of course there are tons of people who have parents who actually don't even try to. I was really moved by how the movie decided to put some love and care into both Naveen’s well-meaning parents' plotlines (who hilariously put on the OUT network when he's over and watch Milk to try to understand him) and why they are struggling to accept Naveen. The movie gives them a journey I feel is just as meaningful as the romance.

I won’t get into the specifics about the ending that made me ugly cry since I want you to enjoy all the details of the film yourself. I will say this: I know having an immigrant parent of my own, and having conflicting messages from my parent’s interracial marriage as I’ve come into my adulthood and brought partners home has had its own struggles. What I’ve realized is those challenges have as much to do with my acceptance of myself and my cultural identity as they have to do with the generation gap.

Sure, I could try to be one person when facing the world and another person around my parent, but I've started to breathe easier when I've accepted that I can't be authentically both.

When A Nice Indian Boy reaches its ending, it feels like a warm hug that occurs when Naveen, Jay and Naveen’s family accept and heal together. It’s something I’ve rarely seen so genuinely communicated in a movie before, and it’s officially one of my favorite 2025 movies. A Nice Indian Boy hits theaters this Friday, April 4.