Based on a true story, the movie Lion is up
for an Academy Award for Best Picture, and also for Dev Patel as Lead Actor.
This is a very worthy film – heartrending and uplifting too. We first
meet Saroo at age five (played so well by Sunny Pawar. His liquid brown eyes
will melt your soul), and his big brother Guduu (Abhishek Bharate) is also so
good. They are in a small town in India. Poor – they struggle to help their
mother by stealing coal off the trains. With a small knapsack worth, they earn
milk. Their mother works by moving rocks. The poverty is tough, but the family love is strong.
Guduu seeks night work and Saroo tags along, but falls
asleep. Guduu leaves him on a bench, admonishing him to not leave.
Well, the boy awakes confused, wanders on to a freight train, sleeps, and
awakens as the train travels far – all the way to Calcutta. He’s lost, doesn’t
speak Bengali, and after a few years of wandering, then being caught in an orphanage,
he’s finally adopted by a couple in Australia (played by Nicole Kidman (also
Oscar nominated), and David Wenham).
Flash forward and we meet a grown Saroo (Dev Patel). He’s
well- adjusted and off to Melbourne to begin college. There he begins to re-think
and remember more of his childhood and wants to find his real mother, brother,
and sister. He loves his adoptive parents and doesn’t want to hurt them. But,
this is his destiny and history and obsession. I won’t tell more. I just
promise you it’s excellent.
The film is lovely, well-acted, and will touch you on many
levels. I highly recommend this film. Lion builds through
character, flashback, and a yearning until it roars.
