‘Meet the Patels’ is a warm, winning journey

Starring Ravi Patel, Geeta Patel, Champa V. Patel and Vasant K. Patel. Directed by Ravi Patel and Geeta Patel.

Rated PG for thematic elements, brief suggestive images and incidental smoking. Check listings for theaters. 1 hour, 28 minutes.

Bottom line: An engaging and lively universal story about an Indian family

“Meet the Patels” is the unlikeliest of success stories. It’s a documentary that began as a home movie and ended up a warm and funny feature. It turned one man’s culturally specific journey into a lively and engaging universal story made with an unmistakable sense of fun.

But “Meet the Patels” is more than just a hoot. Its candor and empathy allow it to make keen points about love, marriage, family and the unexpected complications that American freedoms can bring to immigrant lives.

Front and center in this endeavor is Ravi Patel, whose story this is and who co-directed the film with his sister Geeta (who is also the cinematographer) and who co-stars in it with his parents, Champa and Vasant. “Meet the Patels” is a family affair from beginning to end.

A first-generation Indian-American, Ravi reveals that just before filming began he broke up with his first serious girlfriend, the red-haired, non-Indian Audrey.

Not only that, Ravi’s immigrant parents, fixated on his marrying an Indian, were never told of Audrey’s existence, so “in Mom and Dad’s eyes, I’ve never had a girlfriend.”

In broad outline, of course, this story is not an unfamiliar one, but two things make it special, starting with Ravi’s live-wire personality.

Ravi is a working actor and comedian who has an antic presence and a fine deadpan face, and his sharp and funny voice-over (heard both over the footage his sister shot and speaking to the audience in the animation) is a high-energy component that unifies the film.

The second factor that makes “Meet the Patels” so attractive is the detailed specificity of both Ravi’s immediate family and the broader Indian cultural context everyone is rooted in.

Both Vasant, a self-made success whose favorite phrase is “look at me now,” and his acerbic mother, Champa, of all things a celebrated matchmaker in her home village, are vivid characters.

Adding to the complications is the unavoidable fact that Ravi is a Patel, which makes him “unconditionally part of the biggest family in the world.” Ravi’s parents expect him to marry another member of the clan, which is based in a 50-square-mile radius in India’s Gujurat province but which now boasts Patels all over the world.

Disheartened by his breakup with Audrey and genuinely attracted to the family nature of Indian culture, Ravi decides to embark on a grand experiment.

Pushing aside thoughts that “it’s pathetic to have your mom and dad set you up,” he agrees to wholeheartedly participate in the modern version of arranged marriage, which turns out to have several permutations, each more unusual than the last.

First comes immersion in a system called bio-dating, which involves the families of eligible parties exchanging detailed resumes before phone calls are made and dates (often filmed by Geeta) are arranged. Then there are Indian matrimonial websites, even participation in a Patel matrimonial convention where speed dating between eager-to-wed Patels is the order of the day.

Ravi’s combination of sincere participation and amused disbelief at what he’s gotten himself into gives “Meet the Patels” its winning personality. That and the film’s unexpected moments of truth and clarity.