Kumail (Nanjiani) is a stand-up comedian in LA who supplements his income by Uber driving. Emily (Kazan) is a grad-student who meets him when he’s her lift home for the night. Their chemistry strikes up a friendship that develops into a relationship, and everything seems to be going well. However, Kumail’s strict Pakistani family want him to marry a Pakistani girl, so he keeps Emily under wraps for fear of offending them. She then decides she can’t take the secrecy any longer and breaks things off with him.

But when a lung disease puts Emily into an induced coma, Kumail encounters Emily’s parents (Hunter and Romano) for the first time at her bedside, and has to prove to them that the man who broke their daughter’s heart deserves to be in her life.

Based on the real events of how Nanjiani met his wife – the very alive Emily V. Gordon (who co-wrote the script with him) – there probably are no surprises in the plot of this. But, as the saying goes, it’s the journey that matters. Nanjiani has a truly generous sense of humour and the film has time for everyone in it to prove both comedic and dramatic chops. Romano is the surprise package here: a decade or so of “Everybody Loves Raymond” reruns and Ice Age voiceovers hasn’t prepared you for what he’s capable of as an actor. A surprise hit at Sundance and SXSW, this captures the best of independent comedy, with heart and soul.