Film Review: ‘Meet the Patels’ starring Ravi Patel.
By Raif Karerat
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If you think your dating life is complicated, take a gander at the new documentary “Meet the Patels” and then see how you stack up compared to Ravi Patel, the subject of the film that started out as a home movie and ended up as a full length feature directed by him and his sister, Geeta Patel.
The film chronicles the trials and tribulations of Ravi coming to terms with the notion of arranged marriages and his efforts to find himself an Indian bride in the United States.
The film begins with Ravi explaining that he had recently broken up with his girlfriend of two years, Audrey, a redhead from Connecticut whom he’s kept a secret from his parents.
Much of the film astutely details how Ravi comes to grips with the Indian matrimonial system. Through the lens of first-generation Indian Americans, Ravi and Geeta manage to paint a vivid picture of how difficult amalgamating Eastern and Western cultures can be at times.
While Ravi is envious of his own parents, who had an arranged marriage more than 35 years ago and are “one of the happiest, loving couples” he’s ever seen, he also self-deprecatingly notes that he feels somewhat “pathetic” having his parents act as intermediaries in his dating life once they start setting him up on dates using the system of dating resumes referred to as “biodatas.”
“Most people date and get married. We did the opposite,” remarks Vasant, Ravi and Geeta’s father.
Once the senior Patels are given the green light to go ahead, they waste no time and no expense sending their son on a series of jet setting dates all across the country, after which both romping hijinks and poignant introspection ensue.
The documentary is a warm, comedic, self-deprecating feature that manages to evoke torrents of laughter while touching on deeper issues as well. The film meaningfully delves into the loss of traditional culture some families experience when they move to the United States, and how difficult it can be for both immigrants and their children to come to come to grips with living dual lives in some respects. The film also addresses the Indian predisposition to consider lighter skin beautiful by using comedy to take the paradigm to task.
While you can see the ending to the narrative portrayed in “Meet the Patels” a mile away, the journey from start to finish is one that rides that takes the viewer for a ride along the entire spectrum of emotions, from joy, to sorrow, and sometimes even anger.
Even the crude technical aspects of the production, including its home video aesthetic, lend themselves to the joyfully down-to-earth, earnest nature of the film.
Ultimately, “Meet the Patels” is a surefire crowd-pleaser succeeds on a variety of different levels, managing to engage its audience with a combination of dry, hammy wit as well as raw, sometimes awkward emotion.
While the film manages to underscore the divides that run through immigrant families, it certainly succeeds in revealing how — regardless of any glaring cultural differences — some familial connections are truly universal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4c51aFAaNk4