Butler's Cinema Scene

“MEET THE PATELS” My rating: B

88 minutes | MPAA rating: PG

I was prepared to give “Meet the Patels” a chilly reception just on principle.

After all, here’s a release that looks suspiciously like a home movie…a home movie that meets everyone’s cliched expectations about the behavior of Americans of East Indian descent.

Okay, I was wrong.  I ended up thoroughly enjoying this goofy, warm, borderline heart-tugging documentary from the brother/sister team of Ravi and Geeta Patel.

And if it sometimes looks like a home movie…well, that’s part of its charm.

Our subject is co-director Ravi Patel, a modestly successful Hollywood actor who, as this documentary begins, is rapidly approaching the age of 30. Though born in the U.S.A., Ravi comes from a traditional Hindu family and the pressure is on for him to marry a nice Indian girl — preferably one also named Patel (it’s a clan thing) — and start producing grandkids.

The Woody Allen-ish Ravi reveals (sometimes in conversation with his unseen older sister Geeta, who’s manning the camera) that his dating history is sketchy at best. He’s rarely had success with American girls, though he did enjoy a two-year relationship which he kept a secret from his family lest they go bonkers because he was seeing a woman who wasn’t an Indian American. Eventually the romance collapsed (you can’t blame the girl…who wants to be a dirty secret?).

Now he agrees to allow his parents, Champa and Vasant, to do the whole matchmaking thing.  Ravi doesn’t want an arranged marriage –though he admits that his parents, who knew each other for all of a week before becoming engaged, are the happiest couple he knows.  Rather, he will submit to a complicated process meant to hook him up with an appropriate Hindu girl.  Both he and the women will have the right of refusal.

Ravi Patel (center) with mother Champa and father Vasant

What he discovers is a vast network of Indian American families who circulate resumes — called biodata — of eligible young men and women. These resumes — which are circulated all over the country — cover career, education, family history, even the subject’s complexion (Ravi’s is described as “wheatish brown”). But there is relatively little description of personal likes and dislikes, idiosyncrasies, or sexual preferences…in other words the sort of stuff you’d get on a typical internet dating site.

Despite setting up dates with women all over the country (dad foots the travel bills), Ravi can’t find a girl who does it for him.  At one point he goes to a national convention of Patels, where anxious parents wheel and deal with the fervor of delegates at a political convention. (“It’s like a business expo,” enthuses Ravi’s father.)

Some of the funniest stuff here are the conversations between Ravi and his unmarried sister, both of whom are thoroughly Americanized and spent inordinate amounts of time and energy placating their demanding but loving parents. Ravi is flabbergasted to learn that Geeta has been on 200 first dates but never had a second date. Perhaps, he suggests, the documentary should be about her.

To perk up these static segments the Patel siblings rely on an animated version of Ravi. The device sounds painfully cutesy, but actually it works pretty well.

“Meet the Patels” is wildly successful in immersing us in a “foreign” culture. It’s often laugh-out-loud funny (especially when second-generation Indian Americans commiserate over their travails with demanding parents) and, ultimately, rather sweet. In fact, it inadvertently makes a pretty good case for the old-fashioned arranged marriage backed by the support of a loving community.

Special mention must be made of Ravi and Geeta’s father, Vasant, a chatty real-life version of the James Constantine character from “My Big Fat Greek Wedding.” Finding love, says Dad, is a lot like discovering spiritual awareness: “When you’re ready for a guru, don’t look for a guru. A guru will come to you.”

He also gives pep talks on behalf of promising candidates: “She’s a bit heavy but has a master’s in engineering.”

To which Ravi replies: “So she’s overweight and an engineer and an Indian. That’s not the best pitch.”

Technical aspects of “Meet the Patels” are fairly rudimentary, with the exception of the terrific editing (there are five credited editors), which perfectly provides momentum and a sense of comic timing.

| Robert W. Butler