Meet the Patels

Documentaries are serious business… usually. Most documentary films show us something, take us somewhere, teach us something, or express a point of view as only film can. While these stories and lessons can come with light moments, they usually play it pretty straight with their subjects. That's what makes "Meet the Patels" (PG, 1:28) so delightfully original. Technically classified as a documentary (and accomplishing many of the things that documentaries do), this movie is also a comedy and a romance.

The main character in this romantic comedy documentary is Ravi Patel. In real life, he's an actor and comedian in Los Angeles. Also in real life, he's had to deal with some of the same issues as many young men and women who have roots in India, yet grew up in the U.S. His parents, Vasant and Champa, who emigrated from India in 1967, want him to marry a nice Indian girl and give them nice Indian grandchildren. Ravi isn't opposed to this, but isn't sure how to go about it in the modern world. As the film opens, he's just broken up with Ashley, his red-haired American girlfriend of two years, because he feels the need to commit to someone with whom he can more easily raise a family like he and his sister, Geeta, were raised. For the time being, Ravi and Geeta share a house and deal with their parents… "encouraging" them to find spouses. Ravi is just under 30 and Geeta is just north of 30, making it a minor scandal within their family and circle of friends that neither of them is married.

This film chronicles Ravi's search, over the course of a year, to find a woman whom he and, hopefully, his parents, think would be a good match for him. Even though their own union is the product of a traditional Indian arranged marriage, Vasant and Champa have lived in the U.S. long enough to be willing to compromise on how and where Ravi finds his life partner. But that doesn't stop them from helping the process along. Early in the film, the family takes a trip to India during "wedding season", which they believe is a great opportunity for Ravi to find his bride. Ravi, however, prefers to find an Indian girl in the U.S. The problem, as Arsenio Hall's character says in the similarly-themed "Coming to America", is that "the land is so vast, the choices so infinite." Fortunately, Ravi and his parents have the money and the technological tools to give this search a decent chance for success. Ravi's parents circulate a bio sheet about him amongst other Indian-American families, whose eligible bachelorettes have bio sheets of their own. Ravi also tries meeting women online through Indian-American dating websites. Then, Ravi flies around the country having first dates with a number of the women he meets using these techniques, while his parents keep in constant contact with him, hoping to hear that there will be some second dates. Ravi even attends an out-of-state marriage convention in the hopes that he'll meet and fall for, not just an Indian-American woman, but one named Patel, of which there are many.

Behind the camera is Ravi's sister. We hear them converse about the latest developments in Ravi's search for his ideal woman and there are also reality-TV-style sit-down interviews with Ravi explaining to his sister how he sees things. At the beginning of the film, Ravi explains that, while Geeta is also in the movie business, she's no cinematographer, as evidenced by her shots which are sometimes out of focus, badly lit, poorly composed and include part of her boom mic in the upper right corner of the frame. All this is true at various moments in the film (plus, subtitles are sometimes used to make it clear what certain people are saying if the mic doesn't pick them up well enough), but the movie has well-executed creative aspects as well. Occasionally, Geeta and her fellow director (Ravi) and her fellow producers illustrate part of the story with appropriate graphics and animation. Also, during most of Ravi's sit-down time talking to the camera, we hear his voice (and Geeta's, as she interviews him), but what we see is a cartoon-animated version of Ravi, which sometimes includes a "long shot" of Ravi and Geeta together.

Although this movie documents one man's romantic journey, the film does have writers – Ravi and Geeta, along with Billy McMillin and Matthew Hamachek (who was both editor and co-producer on 2015's great documentary "Cartel Land"). Given that the plan for this film was laid out as a documentary which is also a comedy and a romance, it should come as no surprise that we see aspects of other films, both other documentaries and romantic comedies, within this doc. While "Meet the Patels" doesn't copy any of these movies, moments of this unique film reminded me of films like, of course, "Meet the Parents" (2000), "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" (2002), "My Date with Drew" (2004), "Catfish" (2010), "When Harry Met Sally…" (1989), "Bride & Prejudice" (2004) and "Dil Dhadakne Do" (2015).

"Meet the Patels" is original and beguiling. The unique combination of romantic comedy and documentary filmmaking makes for interesting story-telling. Not only do we want to learn how Ravi's search turns out, but we're also interested to learn from the story's cross-generational and cross-cultural tension. The immediate family of Ravi, Geeta, Vasant and Champa Patel are appealing and many of their interactions are both funny and endearing, as are Ravi's verbal observations, actions and reactions throughout the film. Geeta's lack of expertise with the camera is unfortunate and distracting, but the story-telling is solid, relatable and entertaining. "B"

"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!

It's a documentary, but at the same time the narrative does not act as one.

Ravi is feeling the pressure of being a about to turn 30 year old Indian-American man, who as far as his parents are concern has never even been on a date, cause he hid his 2 year relationship with a white American girl from them. After Ravi breaks up with her he attempts to give Indian culture style dating a try to please the very large family that thinks he should be married with kids by now.

It's a hysterical look at how cultures differ, but at the core stay the same, as Ravi deals with parents who feel that his happiness would be with the perfect Indian wife, his struggle with being both culturally Indian and American, and his annoying older sister, Geeta who thought it would be a good idea to document his turmoil.

It is one of the best comedies I have seen. Through her brother, Geeta attempts to document how Indian dating culture is different from American culture, Yet what she accomplished was creating a narrative that's relatable down to the core.

It'a a fun comedy, every minute was enjoyable, it was funny throughout.

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.