Sunday, October 25, 2015 | Connecticut Post | D3

S I G N A T U R E

WEDDINGSS T Y L I S H E V E N T S

and

3 3 7 K E N Y O N S T R E E T , S T R A T F O R D | 2 0 3 3 7 7 3 0 6 7

VA Z ZANO S FOUR S E A SON S . C OM

Textile artist Ruben Marroquin handcrafts all his textiles in his ownweaving and art studio. All scarves are generously proportioned andwoven with your color choice. You can meet Marroquin in person todiscuss color options, or contact him online. Made with 100 percent

two-ply alpaca, spun in Peru and dyed in the United States. Where to get it: From $109 at Arcade Mall, Main Street, Bridgeport,

or rubenmarroquin.squarespace.com— Lee Steele

One Cool Thing

Custom alpaca scarves

You don’t have to be anIndian-American tolove the culture-clash

documentary “Meet the Pa-tels.”

Every immigrant group thatarrives in this country strug-gles with identity issues, withone of the key questions be-ing: How many of the old wayscan be retained while assimi-lating into a much-freer Amer-ican culture?

The brother-and-sister filmmakingteam of Geeta and Ravi Patel examineRavi’s attempt to find a wife as he ap-proaches 30. He kept his one long-termrelationship with an Irish-American girlsecret from his parents and it left himfeeling guilty. The movie charts Ravi’sreluctant agreement to let his parentsstart the process of an arranged mar-riage.

“I’m lucky that I have neighbors whohave let me into their (Indian) culture, butI think the movie will do that for otherpeople,” Julie Gerowitz, of Stamford, saidafter the “Movie & A Martini” screening atthe Avon Theatre in Stamford.

Only one person in the audience hadany experience with arranged marriages,Kristina Tomaj, of Stamford, who talkedabout the match that was arranged forher in her native Albania. “We were mar-ried 15 years and had two kids, but hewould not change,” Tomaj said of theeventual divorce.

“I thought the parents were the bestpart of the movie,” Marcia O’Kane, ofStamford, said of Vasant and Champa,who love their life in this country, but aresaddened by the absence of Indian mar-riage prospects for their two children.

The meet-up group talked a lot about

the technique in which family memberswere caught in private moments by Gee-ta’s sometimes prying camera. Champaseems to shut down in some scenes, asshe processes the news that Ravi kept hislong-term relationship with a non-Indiana secret. “The heartache came through,”Marion Mitchell, of Fairfield, said.

“Why were they so focused on him notbeing married at 29, when (the daughtershooting the film) was 34?” Kathy Man-del, of Stamford, wondered.

“Movie & A Martini” regular Ken Staffey,of Bridgeport, helped answer some ques-tions about the making of the film usinghis iPhone Google search function. Welearned that most of “Meet the Patels”was shot several years ago, and thatRavi’s eventual relationship, celebrated atthe end of the movie, has since ended.

“Meet the Patels” didn’t find universalapproval. There were a few walk-outs.

“It just didn’t hold me,” Marion Beale,of Greenwich, said during the discussion.

Join “Movie & A Martini” Thursday, Oct. 29,at 6:45 p.m., at the Bow Tie CriterionCinemas, 2 Railroad Ave., Greenwich. MeetJoe Meyers in the lobby. Emailjmeyers@hearstmediact.com.

Movie & A MartiniJoe Meyers

‘My Big Fat Indian Wedding’?

Contributed photo

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