This film references Nicholas Stoller's Bros (2022), a film that was marketed as the first gay romantic comedy by a major studio. It followed Greg Berlanti's Love, Simon (2018), which was marketed as the first gay teen comedy by a major studio. Berlanti's film was a relative success in the box office and possibly paved the way for Stoller's film, which ultimately bombed in theaters, and probably set back any major studio from doing a same-sex male romance ever again, or at least in a long time. This film is instead distributed by a smaller company than Universal Pictures that put out Bros and 20th Century Fox that put out Love, Simon. This film was produced by Wayfarer Studios, the company that produced It Ends With Us (2024), one of the most successful romantic narratives to be released in years, probably since Crazy Rich Asians (2018). Because of its veritable blockbuster status, Wayfarer probably felt emboldened to do more romantic films, ones that deal with topical issues in the way It Ends With Us dealt with domestic abuse. This film, directed by Roshan Sethi, takes on homophobia in a Southeast Asian family and the idea of arranged marriages.
Karan Soni (Miracle Workers and Deadpool) stars as Naveen Gavaskar, the son of immigrants from India. It's not clear where the film is set. It's presumably in some generic American city, but the film was produced in Vancouver, Canada. It would make sense that the film is set in Vancouver since that city is known for having a significant South Asian population. Naveen is in his mid 30's, works as a doctor and has a very nice home. His major problem is that he's single and his family keeps pressuring him to get married. Those pressures are intensified when his sister ties the knot. It wouldn't be too much of an issue, if it weren't for the fact that most of his family doesn't know that he's gay.
What's interesting is that Naveen's immediate family does know. His parents know. His sister knows. Any family member outside those three doesn't know. The reason is because they don't talk about it. Apparently, Naveen told them he was gay and then left to college and they never had any further conversation. Naveen was expecting homophobic reactions, so he didn't engage. His parents though aren't homophobic. That's the refreshing thing here. They simply didn't engage because they were being hyper-sensitive and didn't want to offend and come across as being homophobic. They figured best to keep quiet.
Zarna Garg, a standup comedienne, making her feature debut, co-stars as Megha Gavasker, the mother to Naveen. She doesn't exactly keep quiet. She wants to talk when Naveen bothers to answer her calls. When she does talk, she perhaps goes overboard in her attempts to be a good ally. Megha has to walk a fine line of not talking about her son's gay identity and talking too much about it. She was herself married at a young age in what was an arranged marriage. She now thinks arranging the marriages for her adult children is her top priority. This compels her to be a kind of busybody.
Harish Patel (Eternals and Four Weddings and a Funeral) plays Archit Gavaskar, the father to Naveen. He is the one that keeps quiet the most. When his son came out, he stopped talking. Thankfully, he hasn't said anything mean or discouraging. He hasn't said anything homophobic, but his silence or reticence could be read that way and Naveen does read it that way. As we learn more about Archit, we learn that he perhaps doesn't always conform to traditional gender roles. For example, he's the one who does the cooking for the family not his wife.
It's a question though if Archit is actually homophobic and if he can overcome it. Regardless, Archit and Megha might not be against gay people, but it seems as if they might be a tad sexist or they demonstrate favoritism toward their son, as compared to their daughter, Arundhathi, played by Sunita Mani (Glow and Mr. Robot). Arundhathi feels as though Naveen is allowed to get away with things in regards to his personal life that she isn't or wasn't. There might be truth to that, as Megha tries to overcompensate for having a gay son, which is ironic because Naveen doesn't receive that overcompensation as favoritism.
Jonathan Groff (Hamilton and Frozen) rounds out the cast as Jay Kurundkar. He has an Southeast Asian name but he's a White guy. The reason is because he was adopted and raised in a Southeast Asian household, absorbing its culture and language. Jay is a photographer who is hired to take Naveen's picture, as well as the pictures of the entire hospital staff. They immediately make a connection and start dating. Many people watching this might be overly critical of the depiction of yet another interracial same-sex relationship. Some argue that it 's racist to depict such a relationship as often as Hollywood does because it suggests that a White person is needed in the narrative, in order for that narrative to be successful or even get made in Hollywood.
These kinds of interracial relationships do exist, but perhaps not in proportion to the amount that gets depicted in film and television either in mainstream media or even independent media. The script by Eric Randall, based on the play by Madhuri Shekar, does acknowledge this racial difference and through some funny cross-cutting does poke fun at this idea.
There is a lot of great comedy here, but at its core, it is a character study centering on a man dealing with his anxieties regarding his perceptions of his family and how they treat him. It's also about him overcoming those anxieties holding him back. Yet, it is romantic, as it takes his romance to help break him out. It's book ended with a wedding, a Southeast Asian wedding, which is bursting with color and sweetness, that I was certainly charmed.
Not Rated but for mature audiences.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 36 mins.
In select theaters.