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"

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.

Greetings again from the darkness. These days the topic of racism is usually only addressed in the form of hatred and closed mindedness. This documentary/comedy looks at how racism within a culture is sometimes not only acceptable, but even encouraged as a tradition … and somehow it makes some sense.

You might recognize Ravi Patel. He is an actor from Transformers and "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia", and here his real life search for a wife is the focus – as is the cultural contrasts between his roots in India and his single life in the United States. Ravi co-directs with his sister Geeta Patel, though Ravi is predominantly on screen while Geeta spend her time operating the camera … while simultaneously jabbing and prodding her 29 year old brother with questions on his dating approach.

The movie picks up when Ravi has recently split with his long time girlfriend, Audrey Wauchope. Despite being very close with his parents, there is one reason Ravi never informed them of the relationship: Audrey is a white girl, not an Indian. Ravi's parents are the product of an arranged marriage, the long-standing cultural tradition that not only matches male and female Indians, but takes it a step further by only pairing up Patels with roots in the same small geographic area of India. It's a form of selective mating that dates back many generations.

Things get interesting and the laughs pick up as Ravi agrees to let his parents work the Indian dating network so that he can test out their traditions – in hopes of finding a match as well-suited as what theirs is. This process begins with "biodata"; a type of personal resume submitted by boys and girls – a precursor to the meet-up.

It really plays like a home movie, or a video journal, as Geeta films Ravi on dates and directly after, as he provides feedback on whether it was a good match. There is also a creative use of black & white animation to fill in the interview gaps where only Ravi's audio is available.

The family quest to find a mate for Ravi provides some interesting and entertaining insight into the culture, but the best parts of the film come courtesy of the parents. The mother and father are exceptionally intelligent and very loving and engaged in supporting the success of their kids. Whenever the film drags a bit, a scene with either parent picks us right back up. It's their commitment to the cause that highlights the cultural customs and challenges faced by immigrants as they struggle to get in step with American society while holding onto the tradition they so respect.

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.

"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!