Love isn’t always easy and the subject of this documentary also struggles with it. Ravi Patel is almost 30, lives in the US and still single. His family comes from India and because he takes too long to marry according to his parents they decide to start helping him to find a wife. His family in India is informed who will help him with the search, but also in America a system is used where the information about Ravi is shared like a resume. His sister Geeta follows Ravi during his search and shows how much pressure there is from the family and how you deal with this as the person feeling that pressure.
Although Ravi shows towards his parents he is doing everything to find the perfect woman for him, travelling all through America, he still struggles with his feelings about his past relationship with an American woman. They were together for almost two years, but Ravi has never told his parents anything about her.
Meet the Patels is a documentary which might not be the best from a technical view. It regularly happens that you can spot a microphone or see that footage is out of focus, but Ravi starts making jokes about his sister´s ability to film at the start making you forgive those errors. A part of the film, where Ravi talks directly to his sister, has been animated, which is a nice addition. Ravi’s parents are a joy to watch and you also learn a bit about their history and how they ended up married. It makes Meet the Patels not only a fun watch, but also gives insight into the Indian culture and its influence on someone growing up in America.
