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When you least expect it, “Lion” sneaks up on you and begins to pluck your heart strings with its tiny cat feet. Your tear ducts will be overflowing before you know it, and your entire being will be flooded with incredible joy, as well as a splash of bittersweet sorrow. The same thing happened to those around me during the course of this incredible true story about a five-year-old Indian boy named Saroo, whose life is forever changed in 1986 when he is taken away by the authorities from his idolized older brother and ends up more than a thousand miles away from his home and family.
It’s no surprise that since its world premiere in Toronto in September, “Lion” has won a slew of audience awards at film festivals around the world. While genuine sentimental crowd-pleasers that do not resort to blatant manipulation are few and far between, Garth Davis (TV’s “Top of the Lake”) and screenwriter Luke Davies mostly succeed in keeping sentimental overload at bay until the very end, which is exactly what the audience requires and the film deserves by that point.
It is possible that emotional triggers will appear at various points throughout this decades-spanning story of longing and loss, which is also a mystery about an unknowable past. My favorite scene was when Saroo, now an adult and played by a beefed-up Dev Patel (whose 2008 breakout film “Slumdog Millionaire” serves as a sort of companion piece to “Lion”) finally and somewhat guiltily confesses to his Australian adoptive mother, Sue, that he has spent countless days conducting research while searching for his birth family via Google Earth.
What is the source of his secrecy? The two incredibly generous and supportive people who saved him from a Dickensian existence of poverty, hunger, and potential abuse after being taken to a large-city facility for homeless street children were not people he wanted to offend. Due to my own experience of being adopted as an infant, I understand the feeling all too well, which is why I continue to refer to my mother and father, who raised me, as “my parents,” with no qualifiers, to this day.
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A revelation shared by Sue, a tower of maternal tenderness and immense devotion, embodied by Nicole Kidman, who is excellent despite a distractingly awful curly red wig, takes the cake shortly thereafter. She takes advantage of the opportunity to finally explain to Saroo why she and his father, John (David Wenham, best known for his role as Faramir in “The Lord of the Rings”) decided to adopt him in the first place. Kidman, who is herself an adoptive mother of two children, delivers her words with such raw and honest emotion that even the most abundant supply of Kleenex won’t be able to stop the ensuing flood of tears.
It is not necessary to be adopted in order to be moved in this way. After all, the primal fear of becoming lost and separated from those who matter the most to you is a universal one that affects everyone. The first 40 minutes or so of “Lion” preys on this kind of anxiety, which is heightened by Greig Fraser’s visually poetic boy’s-eye-view camera work, in a way that anyone can understand and relate to.
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What is truly remarkable is that the majority of the acting during this early stage is performed by an untrained newcomer, Mumbai native Sunny Pawar, who was chosen for the role after thousands of children were screened for the opportunity. The kid is a natural, equal parts waif and rascal, with an expressive face that perfectly reflects his changing state of mind from scene to scene, despite the fact that he rarely says a word in the film. Not to disparage Patel, who has progressed tremendously as a performer, but without the foundation laid by Sunny, “Lion’s” onscreen roar would most certainly be more than a little muted.
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In fact, the most important relationship in the film is the one that the young Saroo has with his adored older brother, Guddu (an engaging Abhishek Bharate), which is established from the beginning. While their hard-working single mother looks after their younger sister, the two of them set out to steal coal from trains in exchange for dairy products. Saroo begs Guddu to accompany him on his rounds, which include sneaking onto empty trains in search of dropped money and other misplaced items. However, they become separated after Saroo falls asleep on a bench on the station platform. The first thing he does upon awakening is board a locomotive, which suddenly begins to move at breakneck speed and does not stop until it reaches the bustling city of Kolkata (formerly Calcutta).
Saroo is unable to communicate in his village’s native language (Bengali, as opposed to Hindi), and he is unable to pronounce the name of his village correctly. In the end, he is reduced to sleeping in tunnels and stealing food from public shrines to survive. But, for some reason, Saroo’s natural street smarts come into play, allowing him to survive long enough to be happily rescued from a potentially fatal situation.
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We are completely invested in what will happen to this now grown man by the time the film progresses to the point where Saroo is adopted. The later portion of the film, which takes place after Saroo is adopted, cannot compete with such a compelling opening. In the years leading up to Patel’s assumption of the role, we see a bright and confident Saroo enroll in a hospitality course in Melbourne and fall in love with a fellow classmate (a mostly wasted Rooney Mara in supportive girlfriend mode). There is one drawback, however, in that his parents also adopt a much more traumatized and distant Indian lad to be his new brother, which is in stark contrast to his deep trusting relationship with Guddu. After a chance encounter with an Indian fried-dough treat known as jalebis, served at a party, Saroo is inspired to seek out his ancestors and reconnect with his culture and heritage.
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That search requires Patel to brood, stroke his beard, and obsessively sit in front of a computer as his apartment walls begin to resemble a detective’s patchwork paper-trail of photos and other clues to a puzzle—not exactly high drama, but it is a necessary part of the investigation process. But everything is forgiven when his memory comes back to him and his hard work pays off handsomely. Consider this: if you are human, there is no way that “Lion” will not affect you in some way.
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