LION is the incredible trueĀ story of why you should never have children in India. Based on Saroo Brierleyās memoir A Long Way Home, the film, an inspiring drama that earns tears without jerking them, begins with five-year-old Saroo (played by a bouncing ball of energy named Sunny Pawar) becoming separated from his mother and brother and ending up a thousand miles away in Calcutta. He doesnāt know his motherās name, and he misremembers the name of his hometown. Oh, and they speak Bengali here, not Hindi. Oh, and apparently Calcutta is rife with child-snatchers who prey upon street kids, of which there are tens of thousands.
First-time feature director Garth Davis jangles the nerves with these early scenes, but donāt fret:Ā Saroo is rescued soon enough,Ā adopted by a saintly Australian couple, John and Sue BrierleyĀ (David Wenham and Nicole Kidman), who raise him upĀ lovingly to becomeĀ Dev Patel. (PatelĀ gets top billing even though heās only in the second half of the film. Get a better agent, kids!) Grown-up Saroo, tortured by the knowledge that his family never knew what happened to him, sets out to find them, with only his distant memories and Google Earth to assist him.
Sarooās path may be unclear, but Lionās isnāt: Like the train that took him away in the first place, the filmĀ moves steadily toward its tearfulĀ destination, propelled by sincere performances andĀ Volker Bertelmann and Dustin OāHalloranās gently urgent musical score. Kidman shows great tenderness as the adoptive mother, underscoring the theme of āfamilyā not being limited by biology, andĀ Patel is serious-minded and haunted. But itāsĀ little dynamo Sunny Pawar that youāll remember best, hisĀ infectious cheery optimism encapsulating the filmās hopeful tone.