Meet the Patels is a charming, honest story of balancing tradition and modernity

Four in a Billion Pictures

Every time I watch a movie, there’s a part of me that tries to connect to part of it. Empathizing with characters or themes or subject matter is the key to true audience engagement. Some movies are universal, about the human condition or perhaps something abstract. Others get more specific, and are perhaps about people similar to me, or even really similar. I’m a different sort of minority, but I come from a strong traditional background, so any movie that honestly discusses that is instantly more appealing to me. That said, it rarely happens. So it’s a real treat to see something get it right.

Meet the Patels is a documentary about Ravi Patel, a working actor of Indian descent, and it’s directed by him and his sister Geeta Patel, who we mainly hear behind the camera. The movie starts incongruously with an amusing sort of stop motion cartoon, which is used throughout the movie to show things they never had a chance to film or for specific comedic or dramatic effect. In the movie, Ravi is rapidly approaching thirty and is unmarried. This is a sentence of doom for his parents, who are desperate for their children to get married. The incidental consideration of Geeta is a running theme throughout the movie.

Ravi has also recently broken up with his longtime and very white girlfriend Audrey, whom he kept secret from his parents because he was worried they wouldn’t approve. For a long time, Ravi has been hearing about matchmaking as a viable and legitimate option from his parents, but Ravi kept resisting. After an emotional visit to family in India, Ravi changes his mind and decides to go for it. With the help of his parents and the network of friends and family throughout the US and Canada, Ravi flies all over North America to find love.

He has a legitimate concern about his parents though. Traditionally, Patels from his caste (and coming from the same 50 square mile area in Gujarat India) only marry other Patels. And not just any Patels either, but the right ones. Still, Ravi makes the point that being a Patel is like being a part of the largest family in the world, connected by a shared heritage and values. The movie shows Ravi’s struggles with in person and online dating of various sorts as he struggles to find a connection while constantly worrying about his own dating history.

And the ending might seem predictable, or it just may surprise you.

Ravi is a great focus for this documentary, perhaps helped by his acting background. He seems sincere and intelligent, but without guile or a lot of nonsense. There’s baggage but it doesn’t define him. He and Geeta struggle with worries about modernity and their own culture, second guessing how their parents might think about relationships they don’t even have yet. The whole family is great to watch on family. Watching his parents joke or yell without artifice makes the whole endeavor stay together.

The movie is paced great, which is a common problem for documentaries. By the end, I felt it was the perfect length, and although I wanted to hear more, I didn’t need to. The low tech capabilities of the filming (it was Geeta’s first time filming) add to the verisimilitude of the proceedings. I really felt I could relate to the struggles, even if I haven’t experienced quite the same things. There’s a universality to the balance between tradition and modernity I think still resonates with people, which makes Meet the Patels one of the better family documentary films in a while.