Breakaway (2011)

An ethnic Canadian hockey player struggles against traditional family values and discrimination from mainstream hockey players.

Director:

Robert Lieberman

Writers:

Noel S. Baker, Jeff Schechter,

Stars:

Vinay Virmani, Camilla Belle, Russell Peters

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Vinay Virmani	...	Rajveer Singh
Camilla Belle	...	Melissa Winters
Russell Peters	...	Sonu Singh
Rob Lowe	...	Dan Winters
Anupam Kher	...	Darvesh Singh
Gurpreet Guggi	...	Uncle Sammy (as Gurpreet Singh 'Ghuggi')
Sakina Jaffrey	...	Livleen Singh
Noureen DeWulf	...	Reena Singh
Kashish Suri	...	Gurveer Singh
Pamela Sinha	...	Aunty Jasleen
Prem Singh	...	Deva Singh
Al Mukadam	...	Inderjit Singh
Ali Hassan	...	Nikku Singh
Rup Magon	...	Jassi Singh
Lee Rumohr	...	Dave Murden

Storyline

A hockey enthusiast since 12 years of age, Toronto-based Rajvinder Singh, even went to the extent of trimming his hair, discarding his Pagri/turban, did not complete his education, incurred the wrath of his father, Darvesh, who wanted him to be involved in the family business as well as confirm and respect Sikh religion principles and values. Hoping to play professional hockey, Rajvinder, along with other fellow Sikh players, instead finds himself treated as the object of ridicule, referred to as a 'joker', by mainstream Caucasian players. Even his friends tease him and ask him to take up 'Guli Danda' and Kabaddi', while his father makes him work for Uncle Sammy as a truck driver. He is attracted to stunning law student Melissa Winters while her brother, Dan, offers to coach Rajvinder and his team. Unable to get themselves included in any team, they form their own, and call it 'Speedy Singhs'. They then set about to make a name for themselves with a coach who is unable to pronounce ...

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Plot Keywords:

hockey | sikh | coach | truck driver | canadian | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Sport

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for some language

Details

Official Sites:

Official Blog Official Facebook

Country:

Canada India

Language:

Panjabi English

Release Date:

23 September 2011 (India)

Also Known As:

Speedy Singhs

Filming Locations:

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Company Credits

Production Co:

Breakaway Productions, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), Caramel Film

Technical Specs

Runtime:

101 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Quotes

Darvesh Singh: He's clearly punishing us for asking him to give up this ice hockey. White game out, white girl in.
Darvesh Singh: We danced once. Then we had children.

User Reviews

An un-necessary film with nothing but repetition.

Right from the day when the first look of the film was revealed, SPEEDY SINGHS failed to create any kind of excitement even in the northern Punjabi belt of the country due to its repeated, uninteresting and forced kind of content. There was nothing new in the storyline, no novel idea to offer in the name of sports and no freshness in its looks, concept or presentation.

So, without going into its story details, which is easily predictable, I would like to share that whenever a movie like SPEEDY SINGHS comes, it simply forces me to think that there has to be some other fishy reason to make and spend time on such worthless projects. Because otherwise, there is no way, someone can think of making it with any kind of cinematic vision at all. In short, it's a silly mixture of all seen before sequences which do not give you even a single moment to enjoy in the whole film.

Now, why Akshay Kumar associated himself with this and even produced it with his full spirits again sends me into the suspicious zone. Frankly I think Akshay is now overdoing and dangerously playing with his popular SINGH IS KINNG image in a very funny way. At times it becomes quite hilarious to see the desperation in his SIKH portrayal on the screen with that entire fake make up. And with SPEEDY SINGHS he is again going to experience failure, like his last unsuccessful venture PATAILA HOUSE based on an identical sports theme of Cricket. Hence its time he switches on to a different fresh mode at the earliest.

The film raises many valid interesting questions regarding its overused plot and execution. Obviously the makers were not focused on the Indian Market since they have chosen Ice Hockey in the script which is not a sport played in our part of the world. So, Indian market was just going to be a bonus for them in case the film was a HIT.

But, I seriously couldn't understand why Akshay and Anupam Kher said yes to the script, when they both had already done a similar movie in the past dealing with two different sports. Surprisingly Anupam Kher plays an exactly identical role to what he played in Gurinder Chaddha's BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM which revolved around Football. And Akshay himself played the lead in recent PATIALA HOUSE which talked about a Punjabi underdog player willing to play Cricket for England against the will of his father. Incidentally in that film too there was a sequence explaining Akshay's "Hair Cutting Act" as shown in SPEEDY SINGHS, which has been deliberately added only to satisfy the religious sentiments of a particular section of viewers.

Actually the film is called BREAKWAY in its original English title and is directed by Robert Lieberman, who amazingly uses all 'ages old' Indian ingredients for his foreign film. There is family drama, a love angle, a group of friends as a team, a deliberately added Punjabi comic character, and almost everything which we repeatedly see in all the Regional Punjabi films made nowadays. But the weakest part of SPEEDY SINGHS is that despite of being a Sports Film, it never offers a great crescendo kind of euphoria towards its end, featuring the obvious win of the SINGHS team. And the viewer keeps wondering, Is this really a film written around an exciting sport?

However, in case you loved its groovy track "Shera Di Kaum Punjabi", heavily promoted by Akshay himself, then I would like to comment that SPEEDY SINGHS has simply got nothing even close to a Sher (LION), Speed or Sport. So better play an indoor game at home with your entire family instead of watching this un-necessary film in the theater.