The Patels Will Now Take Over USA: With This Wickedly Witty Film
Here’s why we can’t wait for this deliciously funny, warm and witty Patel takeover in the US!
advertisement
In August, the people of Gujarat reeled under a week-long internet ban. People were unable to receive one time passwords that would help pay bills, unable to swipe credit cards in restaurants or unable to book tickets of any kind.
And it was all done to thwart one 21-year-old Hardik Patel and the members of his organisation from sending inflammatory messages via social media to create widespread unrest in the state. Patel, as we know by now, is on a mission, demanding reservation for his “backward class” Patel community.
Ironically, another Patel, this time from across the seven seas, has used social media and word of mouth to turn a warm, heartfelt family vacation video into grand cinematic success. Meet The Patels, a documentary co-directed by Patel siblings, Geeta and Ravi, has been marketed entirely by the large Patel community in the US. Infact, their father, Vasant Patel called every other Patel in the phone book to get them to watch the film and created a record audience at the Traverse City Film Festival!
Take a look at the trailer of the movie here:
The Movie was Advertised Through Yard Signs Put up by the Patel Parents
Ravi V Patel, an Indian-American actor in New York, says the film, that raised money through crowd funding, was entirely dependent on grassroots community promotion.
Our distributor didn’t do any outdoor marketing – like billboard and bus stop signs, so Dad decided to do it himself. He bought yard signs and along with mom, travelled to the major cities to put them up. We sent tons of yard signs for anyone and everyone to put up.
– Ravi V Patel, Indian-American actor, Meet The Patels
“Yes, Dad completely took care of North Carolina, while our friends, audience members, and people we don’t even know, promoted the film all over the country.” says Geeta, Ravi’s sister who initially started shooting her brother’s hilarious life experience simply to embarrass him.
Heart-warming Support for the Patels’ Film in the US
Ravi, incidentally, is already well known to American audiences for his show Grandfathered which also features John Stamos of Full House fame. Geeta, meanwhile, has made one film before this called Project Kashmir.
If you see the Instagram account of the film, it will warm your heart to see the Patels with yard signs that say ‘Meet the Patels in theatres this September’ everywhere – from marriage processions to gardens to pubs. The support has been so huge that one post reads,
There’s a place called Edison, NJ, which is pretty much entirely populated by Indians – generally regarded as the capital of Indian America. Well, a few weeks ago, a random uncle there called and said ‘I heard about the movie and I want to support my Patels.’
In the last few weeks, Shailesh Patel and his friend Sanjiv Paa have hit Indian conferences adding up to over 1,00,000 attendees, getting people to show our trailer, ambushing them with signs like: “#pateltakeover @meetthepatelsfilm”.
That the film is a show stealer has been proved by the many audience awards (Hot Docs, LA Film Festival and Traverse City Film Festival) it has already garnered. The movie has opened in all the major cities of the US and has made rounds at several film festivals.
As Ravi tells us happily, it is even being touted as an Oscar hopeful.
The Story Borrows From Patel Boy Ravi’s Real-life Love Stories
“Ravi had just broken up with Audrey, his white girlfriend who my parents knew nothing about, and his problems were, well… hilarious,” says Geeta.
It was then that the unlikely heroes of the film, parents Vasant and Champa Patel, who had waited long enough “for grandkids”, took charge of finding their 30-year-old son a mate via ‘arranged marriage’, a concept Patels vouch for.
The tricky part is that Patels only marry Patels. It’s not incest, it means they are from the same 50-square mile radius in India.
– Ravi, Indian-American actor in Meet The Patels
Meet The Patels a Genuinely ‘Different’ Indian-American Film
The movie courses through a period of six years that sees Ravi distribute his biodata, cold call potential wives, make trips to other cities for dates his parents brokered, meet absolute strangers in weddings with the sole purpose of finding a bride and even attend something known as a ‘Patel Matrimonial Convention’.
“After all, our parents are the happiest couple we know. Many cousins have found love this way. There has to be something in it,” he says.
Unlike other films on culture, this one doesn’t caricature the Indian marriage set-up; it actually delves into societal pressures of marriage in the first-generation Indian American family. Ravi and Geeta discovered that this ‘Indian Issue’ was more of an ‘American Issue’ where most Americans with strong cultural and religious roots shared a serious psychological conflict when it came to dating (and marrying) outside of their skin colour, culture, religion, and ethnicity.
So, even as we wait for the movie to reach India, it is safe to say that this is one #PatelTakeover we won’t mind at all.
(Runa Mukherjee Parikh has written on women, culture, social issues, education and animals, with The Times of India, India Today and IBN Live. When not hounding for stories, she can be found petting dogs, watching sitcoms or travelling. A big believer in ‘animals come before humans’, she is currently struggling to make sense of her Bengali-Gujarati lifestyle in Ahmedabad.)