Canada’s cutie Singhs

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What Lagaan was to impoverished, innocent villagers in dusty dhotis, Speedy Singhs is to a bunch of cutie Canadian sardars with shoulder-pads and crotch-guards. There the score was settled with blood-sucking goras on the cricket pitch, here the war zone is an air-conditioned auditorium with an ice rink and the enemy is the team of big-chested, racist, ice hockey champions, the Hammer Heads.

This essentially is the story of Speedy Singhs. But unlike Lagaan, Speedy Singhs is not heavy. It is a light, fast-paced and thoroughly enjoyable film.
I watched the English-with-Punjabi-abuses version and loved it. If you know what tui/ tua means, you’ll love too.
Rajbir (Vinay Virmani) works at his uncle Sam’s trucker company — Speedy Singh — but spends most of his time dreaming of ice hockey glory.
His father, Darvesh Singh (Anupam Kher), disapproves of everything that Rajbir does. He was ashamed and hurt when Rajbir cut his hair, and he is disappointed now because Rajbir is not serious about making a career in the truck-transport business. Oh, and he hates all things Canadian, including “apple pie, peanut butter, ties”, and, especially, ice hockey.
But Rajbir loves ice hockey and every evening he lies and slips out to play with his buddies, a bunch of jolly but hopeless sardar boys whose lingo and gestures are inspired from boys in the American hood.
Coach Dan (Rob Lowe), who is in charge of the ice hockey rink, watches the Indian boys play and sees some potential, especially in Rajbir. When racist remarks are made by Hammer Head bullies and punches and fouls are ignored, Dan decides to help this loser lot. And Dan knows what to do. He was, after all, an ice hockey star.
Dan has a sister, Melissa (Camilla Belle), who often hangs out at the rink. A human rights activist, she comes in handy as Rajbir’s love interest and to file petitions and fight against the rule that says all players must wear helmets. There are emotional scenes around the pagri and turban, Sikh heritage and history, all of which will no doubt touch a chord with the film’s Punjabi audience, NRI and otherwise.

ROBERT LIEBERMANis a very successful Canadian director of TV serials and commercials. That he is a very keen observer of life and the Indian diaspora is obvious from his surprisingly inspired team of actors and writers.
There is Uncle Sam, the genial and successful Canadian truckwalla, played rather neatly by Gurpreet Guggi. Sam becomes Speedy Singhs’ main sponsor. His daughter, Reena the hottie TV reporter, is played by Noureen Dewulf. Reena is engaged to be married to one of the film’s most compelling and cretinous characters played brilliantly by Russell Peters. He is Sonu, the ghar-jamai who will inherit the trucks. He banters a lot with Rajbir, the film’s hero played by Vinay Virmani, who, sadly, is lukewarm.
Speedy Singhs’ story is standard fare but is told with naughty dialogue, dirty jokes and fist firmly on the heart, in true “Singh is king” sentiment and style. It has hysterical-because-they-are-typical characters that anyone with a relative in Canada will identify with.