Now on DVD for the first time the documentary film Meet the Patels tends to be more of a comedy than a absurd reality show like “Married at First Sight.” Filmed live with hundreds of real people, the film must have been a nightmare to make, yet it shines from its humble beginning to a memorable ending.
Meet Ravi a real nice American guy who has everything going for him in his social life even romance with outgoing and full of life Audrey. Oh, except he’s Indian, from India “Indian”, and they have a lot of very important rules and values. One of the biggest rule is to marry an Indian woman and it is the most honored in their culture. Now, there’s even a complication with wanting to marry one of their countrypersons, Ravi’s last name is Patel. In India the sur name Patel is in the hundreds of thousands. It’s like Smith or Jones or Johnson a never ending list in a telephone book.
Well here’s the story, Ravi loves Audrey and she loves him, but he must honor his parents and first try to find a woman who he would be happy with among the Patel’s. To do this he has to travel to India where we are treated to a hilarious romp that leads him back to America deciding to try a dating service. There’s even a dating service for Patel’s as we find out and there’s hundreds of them in the United Sates.
The documentary is all caught on camera being filmed by Ravi’s sister Geeta Patel, who by the way is also single. The film becomes a laugh a minute as Ravi travels America looking for his mate and future mother of his children. That said, mom and dad are so delighted that Ravi wants to fulfill Indian culture they go along for the ride. The film gets more and more complicated and zany that you can’t turn off the DVD until the finale to see if this guy ever finds a mate or even meets his ethnic background.
The film turns out to be an adventure in dating from on-line to in-person that I wouldn’t be surprised has been ventured by a lot of people in the world today. Nicely filmed and directed by both Ravi and his sister Geeta, the movie gets into the nitty gritty of the many ups and downs of meet and greet, date, follow-up and even turn downs.
Now on DVD, Meet the Patels should be a fun film, no an opportunity, to see what it’s like to be single and have your mother and father as the judges. Although the film is rated PG by the MPAA for thematic elements, brief suggestive images and incidental smoking it should be no problem mature kids to enjoy the fun. Oh, and if they are of Indian descent, they can see what they have ahead of them in life. Just saying.
FINAL ANALYSIS: A very funny insight into the culture of another nation. (B)
Specifications and additional video information:
Cast: Ravi V. Patel, Geeta Patel Champa V. Patel, Vasant K. Patel, Audrey Allison Wauchope, Anari Patel, Aruna Patel, Bakula Patel, Bahavana Patel, Bahvit Patel, Bonna Patel, and hundreds more sur-named Patel
MPAA Rating: PG for thematic elements, brief suggestive images and incidental smoking
Genre: Documentary, Comedy
Running Time: 1 hr. 28 min.
Original Theatrical Release Date: September 11, 2015
Video Release Date: January 26, 2016
Language: English
Reviewed Format: DVD
Audio: Surround 5.1
Video: Full 16×9 widescreen Aspect Ratio 1.78:1
Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish
Number of Discs: 1 Disc
Distributed by: Alchemy
Writer, critic, film editor John Delia, Sr. has been on all sides of the movie business from publications to film making. He has worked as a film critic with ACED Magazine for more than 20 years and other publications for a total of 40 years. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Florida. John is a member of the Southeastern Film Critics Association and Critics Association of Central Florida Send John a message at jdelia@acedmagazine.com
