Meet the Patels

Ravi Patel—LA-based actor and director—is in crisis. He's nearly 30 years old and not married. His parents, who emigrated from India when they were young, make it clear to him that his first priority in his present life is to get married and preferably to another Patel. This starts the first of many in-movie explanations to help those of us who aren't from India understand that country's marriage customs. Nearly everyone from a certain part of India is named Patel and they're all related but they're now far removed. (Sort of like the "Smiths.") It's a super-enormous extended family with platinum-level familial rights that Patels around the world well understand.

Ravi's problem is that he's not sure he wants to marry a Patel from India. He was born and grew up in the US and he has different expectations. Yet his upbringing and culture call to him. Part of him wants to be traditional. Part of him does not. He's stuck in the middle and the parents are impatient. Very impatient.

This film documents a real year in Ravi Patel's life and follows him as he seeks a marriage partner in the traditional Indian way, modified by American cultural tones. His parents work very hard to find him a mate using the international Patel underground, which includes the extended Patel family of aunts, uncles, and cousins; biographies of available mates not necessarily written by the candidates themselves; and an annual Patel Matrimonial Convention created to help young Patels meet as many marriage candidates as possible in the shortest possible time. Ravi even flies cross country tracking down possible mates.

Although it's a documentary, this is a truly funny movie with a lot of heart. The parents want what they think is best for Ravi and Ravi wants to please his parents and fit in with the extended Patel family. There are many funny scenes as this year-long quest unfolds and there are humor-laden extenuating circumstances as well. Two of these:

1. Ravi's older sister Geeta is the cinematographer and she happens to live with Ravi in LA. She's not married either.

2. Ravi has a girlfriend of two years that he's broken up with just before the movie starts. She's a pale redhead and the parents do not know about her.

Do not get the idea that this movie is strictly for people whose heritage traces to India. Every young adult in America is having trouble finding a mate, Internet or no Internet. These situations and the humor transcend any one culture. This is a truly heartwarming film for anyone looking to find someone to go through life with. It is well worth seeing. It opens in three cities on September 11 and then more widely a week later.

We saw this movie through the San Jose Camera Cinema Club, which will be starting its 20th season this fall.

"Meet the Patels" (2014 release; 88 min.) brings the story of Ravi Patel (TV actor best known for his work in Past Lives , and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia) and his quest for the perfect mate. As the movie opens, we see an animated sequence in which Ravi is telling us what's been going on. We then go back 2 years, when he and his parents and sister go on a family vacation to India. And that it is a "family" vacation becomes all too clear as it turns out in his dad's home village of Gujarat, most people are names Patel. Eventually Ravi decides to try the matchmaking skills of his parents (who themselves married in an arranged wedding). Will Ravi find his perfect mate? To tell you more would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.

Couple of comments: this movie is a labor of love for Ravi and his sister Geeta Patel, who co-directed. With little or no budget, they film the dating adventures or Ravi for over 2 years. And where the camera failed to capture an important moment it is filled in by a surprisingly charming animation. Did I tell you that the Patel parents are in the movie? "Almost 30, never married: Code Red!" is how Ravi describes himself. His dad came to the US in 1967, and obviously has done very well for himself. He is also a doting dad, always ready, willing and able to give advice to his kids, whether they want it or not. There are plenty of hilarious scenes in the first half of the movie, to the obvious enjoyment of the theater audience. The second half of the movie is not so much laugh-out-loud funny, but more a reflection on the importance of family. Please note: you do NOT have to be Indian or Indian-American to enjoy this movie (I am not). There is a surprising amount of great music placement throughout the film, including MIA, Hot Chocolate, Soup Purpose, and many others. This movie was first released at the 2014 Los Angeles Film festival. No idea why this has been sitting on the shelves for over a year before finally getting released in theaters...

"Meet the Patels" opened this weekend out of the blue at my local art-house theater here in Cincinnati without any pre-release advertising or hype. I love a good documentary, and so I checked it out. The early evening screening where I saw this at was attended much better than I had anticipated, and I should point out that there were quite a few from the Indian community here in Cincinnati. This is a light-hearted documentary that flew by in no time. If you like documentaries or a glimpse at the dating scene in the Indian-American community, you cannot go wrong with this. "Meet the Patels" is worth checking out!

This very cute movie follows Indian actor Ravi Patel's adventures in dating, as, after breaking up with his adorably geeky white girlfriend he allows his parents to usher him into the world of Indian semi-arranged marriage, dating women all over the country as his sister documents his adventure and chats with him as both sister and interrogator.

The elaborate dating system he enters is quite interesting, and his eager-to-help parents are lovely people. The movie has a number of cute animated sequences, and as the movie progresses we learn a little about the behind-camera sister's own dating life.

One thing about this movie - I'm not sure I like Ravi all that much. He comes across as an overly picky commitment-phobe whose vision of the ideal influences the way he treats women. He's not terrible, the movie does confront this issues to some extent, and I appreciate that he was willing to show himself this honestly, but still, I was a bit put off by him at times.

Still, this is informative and funny and nicely paced.

In effect, a content-light trawl through one man's dating history, with a half-hearted attempt to find some meaning or pattern in it. Doesn't really work nor add up to anything. Despite that, it's watchable up to a point, but there aren't any surprises and it doesn't involve you.

People pleasing, indecisiveness, general inexperience, a little un-savvy--and caught in a very strict, very traditional, but no longer quite functional system--omg. This movie in so many ways relates to my experience as a white girl in the American South, uber Christian.

Sure, it would be great if this kid knew himself more, was sure of what he wanted, and went after it tenaciously. But he is evolving slowly. With evolving "rules." I want to believe he'll get there. I want to believe we'll all get wherever it is we really want to go. In the meantime, I appreciated getting to know him, his family, and his dual cultures, and I enjoyed being along for a very relatable ride.

It's amazing how well this thing was edited, and how well it came together. Even though the footage was rough, the film was fun to watch.