Thursday, May 29, 2025 at 8 p.m. on KPBS 2 / Stream now with the PBS app
"Meet the Patels" is a real-life romantic comedy about Ravi Patel, an Indian American actor/comedian who enters into a love triangle between the woman of his dreams — and his parents. Filmed by Ravi’s sister, Geeta, in what started as a family vacation video, this warmly humorous film filled with unique animation and a soulful soundtrack reveals how, for a Patel, love is truly a family affair.
Fresh out of a breakup with the white girlfriend his parents didn't know existed and freaked out that he’s almost 30 and still single, Ravi goes on a family vacation to India, open minded about finding love in a traditional way — but there’s a catch: in his family, everyone has the last name Patel. Patels marry other Patels. It’s not incest — it just means they are from the same 50-square mile radius in India.
As the marriages of his Patel family and friends all seem overwhelmingly happy, Ravi plunges into the foolproof Patel matchmaking system and embarks on a worldwide search for the perfect American Patel woman.
A well-oiled machine, the Patel network is instantly alerted to Ravi’s availability through his legendary matchmaker mother Champa and his jovial, advice-spouting father Vasant, both of whom expertly steer Ravi’s love life through a system that has brought happiness into the lives of all of Ravi’s cousins.
Ravi and Geeta’s parents decided to marry within ten minutes of meeting, have been happy for 35 years and are impatiently awaiting weddings and babies.
Over the course of a year, Ravi is sent on a whirlwind of dates across the U.S. and Canada via the “biodating” system (in which résumés are circulated within the Patel universe), a chain of weddings, online matrimonial websites, and even the Patel Matrimonial Convention. During the process, Ravi can’t seem to shake his documentarian sister who follows him around, inserting commentary at every turn.
"Meet the Patels" explores the questions with which we all struggle: What makes a great, lasting marriage? What is love? How do we find it? And even then, how do we keep it?
Meet the Patels on PBS Presents a Love Quiz!
Credits: A co-production of 4B Pictures LLC and Independent Television Service (ITVS) with funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).
