Speedy Singhs/Breakaway Movie: A Thinking Man’s Fillam

For the past few months, I have been inundated with information about the much-hyped Canadian-Bollywood venture, Speedy Singhs, also called Breakaway. As of September 3o, the film is available in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and India.

It’s interesting to note that, in the comments to another post on TLH titled “Stick Handling Singhs,”  even those who thought the movie sounded corny (it is) would go watch it to “see what’s out there.” I have lost count how many conversations I have abruptly ended that began with, “Dude, have you heard about. . . ” or that mentioned the names of “Russell Peters,” “Rob Lowe,” “Camilla Belle,” or “Akshay Kumar.” The film has been endorsed by everyone from Ludacris to Jus Reign to the king of Punjabi slapstick, Ghuggi Sahib himself.

There are many sports movies that transcend the rules its genre are bound by to provide real insight into their characters, award-winning films like Any Given Sunday or The Fighter. And I can name plenty of Bollywood films that have impressed me over the years with the way they tackled real issues. Similarly, Speedy Singhs/Breakaway takes on heavy issues like school bullying, tradition, and religion, but the film suffers from an identity crisis. It’s a romantic-comedy. It’s a melodrama. It’s a Punjabi comedy skit. It’s action. It’s even Bollywood at times. There were a few funny lines and scenes in the film, but you can find them all in the trailer.

The actors and musicians involved with the project are quite impressive, but the writing just isn’t good enough to keep up with the shifting genres  – it’s not worthy of this caliber of actors. Case in point: The not-so-subtle sexual jokes and one liners by Russell Peters are amusing for about five minutes, but they do get tiring when you realize there really is nothing more to his character than that. He might as well have played himself.

It’s like the producers went out of their way to create a project where the actors would be confined by the quality of writing. And while a film about team of underdog turbaned Sikh ice-hockey players who have to battle whitey is just destined to have an audience, the storyline is essentially unoriginal, the writing is mediocre (with occasional spurts of witty dialogue), and it is riddled with clichés throughout. Here are some examples:

The racist white boy ice-hockey bullies who intimidate the underdog Brampton boys because they’re brown. The untrained underdog Brampton boys with lots of heart, who must prove to everyone they have what it takes to be champions. The tough and traditional Sikh father with a heart of gold. The failed ice-hockey player turned grumpy and disillusioned coach who reluctantly agrees to train the Brampton boys to victory.

Anupam Kher (who else?) plays the stern, traditional, yet ultimately cuddly Sikh father. His son Rajveer, played by Vinay Virmani (also one of the four screenwriters on the project), is caught between the traditional expectations his father has placed on him and his own aspirations to become an ice-hockey supastaah. Throw into the mix his love interest — a feisty white girl who declares that she doesn’t date hockey players, truck drivers, or quitters — and you have conflict just bursting at the seams. I know what you’re thinking: OMG. Will he get the girl? Will his team overcome the racism and win the championship? Will his father ever accept his white girlfriend and passion for ice-hockey? Spoiler alert: yes to all. Even I have a limit to my suspension of disbelief.

The problem really boils down to the screenplay, which is so limited in what it is setting out to do that every single character is inevitably rendered into a caricature. Moments that should be meaningful, like when Rajveer’s brother is upset about being bullied at school and wants to cut his hair, are instead wrought with melodrama. There is simply no room for any level of depth, not even by accident.

The Speedy Singhs/Breakaway has been likened to a dumbed down, duller, cheap laugh-version of Bend it Like Beckham, which also starred Anupam Kher as the traditional Sikh father. But there are a plethora of films with basically the same plot. Take Bollywood’s Patiala House, starring Akshay Kumar or Dil Bole Haddipa with Rani Mukherjee. Instead of soccer (yes, Blighty, that just happened), their passion is cricket. But even these offer flashes of insight into the characters and there is real emotion amidst all of the masala.

It isn’t that the subject of immigration or the first generation blues just can’t be written about without originality. The Namesake is a novel and a movie about these clashes and has a story with plenty of depth that doesn’t need to resort to melodramatic clichés. Two years ago, I watched the drama Ocean of Pearls, written and directed by Sarab Singh Neelam, at the Sikh Film Festival in New York. That film tackled issues like tradition, religion, and identity in an entirely original — and graceful — way. The story was about a Sikh doctor who compromises his values when he takes a position at a hospital in Detroit. He is also faced with the difficult decision of whether to keep his hair or cut it in order to look like “everyone else,” to advance in his career. I loved the premise of this movie and the approach the first time director and writer took. It had some kinks, but overall, I thought it was a powerful story. Below is the trailer:

Rent “Ocean of Pearls” by Sarab Singh Neelam:

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In the end, Speedy Singhs/Breakaway is obviously full of cheap laughs, and a  predictable plot. Sure, there’s a three act structure there and and there are some genuinely funny moments. So does this, in a sense, mean the film is a success as Akshay Kumar’s foray into international waters? Perhaps, if only for the fact that, if this film even does moderately well, there might even be an opportunity for some new voices to tell their stories in another joint venture. One with a stronger screenplay. Right?