Arranged marriage? Fun
“Meet the Patels,” a clever hybrid of documentary and romantic comedy, is a witty take on the tradition of arranged marriages, as seen through the eyes of an Indian American man who decides to give the age-old practice a try — with the encouragement of his parents, of course.
Ravi Patel, just shy of 30, has recently broken up with his non-Indian girlfriend, Audrey, because he can’t bring himself to tell his mother and father about her. With family pressure mounting to end his bachelorhood, he agrees to send out a marriage resume, which leads him on a cross-country tour of carefully screened dates — all of which are disasters.
There’s a certain level of contrivance that hangs over these proceedings, but Ravi (who co-directed with his sister, Geeta) overcomes this problem in several ways.
First, and foremost, we believe that he’s sincere in his love of his family and his heritage, and even his respect for the institution of arranged marriage. This is a man who cherished his childhood and his family traditions, yet he is conflicted, because he’s thoroughly American and sees the world in a different way than his parents.
Ravi’s back and forth with his lively mother and father, themselves the happy product of an arranged marriage, add hilarity and texture to the film, as do animated sequences of Ravi talking into the camera about his dilemma.
The production values are often of the home movie variety (which Ravi openly acknowledges), and we don’t see much of Ravi’s dates, for obvious reasons. We are left to wonder whether these women don’t find Ravi suitable, whether Ravi doesn’t find them suitable, or whether these women simply don’t want to participate in this documentary — or all of the above.
Whatever the case, we enjoy Ravi’s search for suitable mates, and we like his family. In the end, they just want each other to be happy — and that’s all that matters.