Poignant search for a stolen sanctuary
(PG, 118 mins)
ONE man’s extraordinary true-life odyssey provides the inspiration for Garth Davis’ drama.
Screenwriter Luke Davies has skilfully adapted Saroo Brierley’s autobiography, cutting back and forth between traumatic events more than 20 years apart to chronicle the lead character’s seemingly hopeless quest for closure.
Dev Patel and Sunny Pawar are both terrific as the 26-year-old and fiveyear-old incarnations of Saroo, who is unexpectedly transplanted from Khandwa to the giddy whirl of Calcutta, then on to Australia.
Five-year-old Saroo (Sunny Pawar) lives in 1987 Khandwa with his mother Kamla (Priyanka Bose) and siblings. On a nighttime excursion to the local railway station, Saroo is separated from his older brother and ends up on a train heading east to Calcutta.
The boy is eventually placed with adoptive Australian parents John and Sue Brierley (David Wenham, Nicole Kidman).
Years later, Saroo (now played by Patel) is enrolled on a course at the Royal Melbourne College of Hotel Management and confesses details of his past to other Indian students, who encourage him to use online satellite mapping software to trace the railway line from Calcutta back west.
Fellow student Lucy (Rooney Mara) pledges her support to Saroo, whose studies suffer as he stares at his laptop screen, looking in vain for a station that might be Khandwa.
Lion is a majestic, heartfelt drama that delivers an emotional wallop as Saroo gradually pieces together his past. Davis deftly moves between timeframes, eliciting riveting performances from Patel, Pawar and Kidman as a proud mother who will never stand in the way of her beautiful boy tracing his bloodline.