“Lion” is based on a true story that begins in 1986, in Kolkata, India, when a little boy named Saroo (Sunny Pawar) gets lost on a train, accidentally traveling more than 1,000 miles from his small village into the central streets of constantly moving India.
In those days, long before social media and smartphones, getting lost was exceedingly easy, and being so young he could not read, write or fully express himself even in his native language.
Saroo’s mother (Priyanka Bose) lives in a very poor village, where she toils as a day laborer. Her eldest son, Guddu (Abhishek Bharate), is hardworking and clever, supplementing her tiny wages with whatever grunt work he can find. In the first scene, he and Saroo are scavenging lumps of coal to exchange for milk at the market.
It’s this lack of money, in part, that prompts Saroo to follow his big brother to a railroad station, where he accidentally boards an out-of-service train.
“Lion” is directed by Garth Davis and he delivers with a jolting excitement giving the viewer full immersion into a remarkable real-world incident. A child’s experience, alone, on the streets of India is dangerous, ugly and sad. In part one, the dialogue is sparse but the power of the visual storytelling, coupled with graceful editing, makes those few words, written by screenwriter Luke Davies, all the more powerful.
Saroo’s situation is especially perilous because he is so small and does not speak the language, which makes him even more vulnerable than most. However, it’s evident that the young man is intelligent, extraordinarily resourceful and a chip off the old block, so to speak, having watched his street-smart older brother make lemonade from rotten lemons every day.
You find yourself rooting for the young man because it’s evident that Saroo’s soul is being battered and bruised with every step. This true story is captivating and the filmmakers were smart enough to keep the storytelling simple.
The second part of the movie has more complexity, because now young Saroo is all grown up (now played by Dev Patel). He’s safe, the adopted son of an Australian couple, John and Sue Brierley (David Wenham and Nicole Kidman), along with an adopted brother (from India) Mantosh (Divian Ladwa), who has severe mental health and substance-abuse issues.
All-in-all Saroo seems to be living a happy life. He moves to Melbourne to study hotel management, falling in love with a fellow student, Lucy (Rooney Mara).
Something still haunts him—hidden memories—and when he’s introduced to new technology, he obsesses over using Google Earth to retrace his journey. It’s not an easy process because he remembered so little. The effort places strain on all of his relationships as his determination to find home grows.
The creators are great storytellers with a stellar cast and moving music provided by Hauschka and Dustin O’Halloran, pushing the viewer emotions even higher.
If you have a human heart that’s filled with love, then “Lion” will touch you, deeply. It’s based on a true story, so the emotional experience succeeds, I feel, because we all want to be found.
Industry award trackers predict an Oscar nomination for Patel because the transition from the young Saroo to the grown-up demanded a shift in tone that only an actor with skill could achieve and Patel did just that.
In the end it doesn’t matter if lost souls use Google or their own innate sixth sense. What matters is that they find that place they feel is lost—that they find their way home.
“Lion” is rated PG-13 (parents are strongly cautioned) for sex and profanity. The film is directed by Garth Davis, written by Saroo Brierley, Larry Buttrose and Luke Davies, and stars Rooney Mara, Nicole Kidman, Dev Patel, David Wenham and Nawazuddin Siddiqui.
