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"

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.

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': Three and a Half Stars (Out of Five)

A comedic documentary flick; about an Indian-American actor, who's been single most of his life, that agrees to allow his traditional parents, to set him up with a potential bride (on a trip to India). The film was directed by Ravi Patel (who also stars in the movie), and his sister Geeta. Geeta also filmed most of the documentary, in really poor quality video, and her footage is mixed with comedic animated sequences too (explaining unfilmed plot points). The film is interesting, and funny; it also has a great leading man performance, in Ravi Patel.

Ravi Patel is a 29-year-old actor; who's played a lot of clichéd Indian-American 'bit parts' (in many movies). He's been single most of his life, and just broke up with his first girlfriend (Audrey Wauchope); due to a fear his parents wouldn't accept her (Audrey is an American redhead). On a trip with his family to India, he decides to allow his parents (Vasant and Chapa), to set him up with an Indian girl; in the traditional Indian family way. The film examines the concept of arranged couples, while Ravi's sister (Geeta) films the whole thing (she's also been single most of her life).

The movie is interesting, in a very comedic (but informative) way. It's also extremely personal at times; and Ravi Patel is very funny, and charming. I enjoyed the movie, quite a bit, but it's a little hard for me to believe it's all completely genuine. Like a lot of modern documentary films, the movie seems more like really creative performance art; than like watching real people (acting completely genuine), in completely real situations (it seems at least partially staged). But I love performance art, I practice it a lot myself; and I love entertaining documentary flicks, like this, too.

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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.