Our Review: My Indian Boyfriend

Cross-cultural Movie boasting cross-cultural Romance.

 “My Indian Boyfriend” is Hong Kong’s first Indian-style movie, a story of a Hong Kong local and Indian falling in love, battling the odds of racism, dramatic villains and family disapproval.

Just when you thought Bollywood was done dominating the world, it made its way to Hong Kong. Popularly known as “the first-ever Indian-style movie made in Hong Kong,” My Indian Boyfriend is a film based on the cross-culture love story of a young Indian man and a local Hong Kong woman.

The movie was filmed entirely in the city of skyscrapers during the pandemic. The film is the first bilingual movie to be released in Cantonese and Hindi! Experience Bollywood songs with Cantonese music for the first time – although the Indian versions take the cake in the familiar voices of Jonita Gandhi, Benny Dayal, and more.

Several attempts missed the mark – beginning with a song titled “Indian Curry” featuring lyrics like “yoga fire yoga fire” – not helpful when most people associate India only with yoga and curry and ending with a controversial Chinese name (我男友係好差) incorporating “差” (cha), directly translating to “My Boyfriend is Very Bad.”

But of course, we never judge a book, or a movie, by its cover, so let’s get into the storyline. Let’s say if My Indian Boyfriend were released in India on the scale of Race 3, there would be more memes on the former than the latter, and that’s saying a lot.

For the very first Bollywood-style movie in Hong Kong, it is a commendable effort. There’s dancing, drama, and emotion, well portrayed by the two lead actors, Shirley Chan and Karan Cholia. Sri Kishore’s direction and the movie editing are professional, but the storyline is bland. The movie leaves you wanting more for an Indian audience used to ample amounts of drama, family involvement, and gripping scenes. The silver lining is the song “Tu Re” – well composed, well lyricized, and genuinely catchy.

The movie revolves around Krishna (Karan Cholia), a spoilt, naughty boy falling head over heels in love with his new local neighbor Jasmine (Shirley Chan). Like every Bollywood movie, she’s engaged to a man of her parent’s choice, who is richer and more Chinese than Krishna. The rom-com gives you a visual of 50 individuals on the busy streets of Central busting out choreographed Bollywood moves, a taste of Indian movies, and an attempt at Bollywood-styled conflict solving.

If you’re feeling adventurous, have friends missing out on Bollywood, or just looking for an excuse to head to the cinema, My Indian Boyfriend is for you.

In true movie buff rating style, I’d give this movie a 2 out of 5 stars. If anything, you can use the film to pick up some Cantonese through the occasional dialogue breakouts in Hindi and Cantonese. It’s a decent attempt, a fair one-time watch, but watch out – you may have the title song stuck in your head for weeks to come!

So, will you be watching My Indian Boyfriend?

*The movie was personally watched and reviewed by our reviewer- Anushka Purohit on 20^th June, 2021.*