LION
Australia, 2015, 120 minutes, Colour.
Dev Patel, Rooney Mara, David Wenham, Nicole Kidman, Sunny Pawar.
Directed by Garth Davies.
The title causes a question mark right throughout the film. The title of the book on which the film is based is called A Long Journey Home. And we see no lions either in India or in Tasmania! It is only in the last minute that the meaning of the title is revealed and is symbolically satisfying.
The author of the book is Saroo Brierley, who remembers something of his childhood in India, especially his love for his older brother, the love for his mother, out in the fields (and a myriad butterflies), on top of a coal train filling bags with coal to exchange for milk at the market, life at home, and his persuading his brother (after showing him all the things, heavy things, that he could lift) to taking with him to his night work. He is told to wait at the station, dozes off, wakes in fear, goes on to a train and is carried over 1600 km from his home to the busyness of Calcutta.
The film is very moving as we share the plight of a little boy lost, not really comprehending what has happened or what is happening, wandering through crowds, offered a piece of cardboard to sleep on in a subway, going to a shrine, praying but eating the food left in offering. When he is found by a sympathetic woman and taken home and cared for, there is the dreaded realisation that the man she calls in for help is a pimp for paedophiles. Saroo runs away, is collected and put into a boys' home, interrogated by the police but, finally interviewed by a sympathetic official, he has been chosen for adoption in Australia, joining other little adoptees to learn a little English as well as table manners.
This first almost half of the film is well worth seeing. The performance by the little boy, Sunny Pawar, is just right.
As is the rest of the film, the little boy flying to Hobart, meeting his adoptive parents John and Sue Brierley, played sympathetically by David Wenham and Nicole Kidman. Saroo adapts to Australian life, though an adoptee brother finds it very difficult. And then 20 years have passed, Saroo (Dev Patel) truly Australian, going to study in Melbourne, encountering a young American student (Rooney Mara), and finding in discussions with their friends, especially Indian friends, a re-awakening of the story of his past, his longing for his mother and his brother.
As this becomes a preoccupation, then an obsession, he does not cope well, one of the most moving sequences in the film is, courtesy of a fine Nicole Kidman performance, where his mother is in something of an emotional collapse and she explains her life, her experience when young and her longing to help a child less fortunate than an Australian child and that her longing has been fulfilled in him.
Google Earth will be very pleased with the film because it provides an opportunity for him to further explore, to go back to India and, as Saroo says, and so the questions he has always had answered and the holes in his heart are filled.
The central characters all appear as themselves for the final credits including a very moving sequence in India.
The film has been very well received – and pleasing that this is an Australian film.
1. The title, the revelation in the last minute of the film, significance?
2. Based on a true story, the 1980s, into the 21st century? The poor of India, children and families, boys lost, their fate? Adoption, 2007, Tasmania, Hobart, Melbourne? The return to India in 2010?
3. The Indian story: Saroo, the valley, the butterflies, calling to his brother? On the train, the bags, stealing the coal? Going to the market, getting the milk in exchange, bringing it for their mother and sister? Guddu and his work at night, Saroo insisting on coming? His lifting the weights, riding the bike, waiting at the station for Guddu to work, going to sleep, waking, the sense of loss, searching the station, going onto the train and the later revelations and of the irony of goodies accident and death?
4. Saroo on the train, locked in, sleep, the bewilderment for a six-year-old boy, pleading to people to get him out, no response? Arriving in Calcutta, the teeming city, the crowds, the stations, his wandering, going to the shrine, prayer, eating the food? In the subway, the other children, the offer of the cardboard, his going to sleep, the authorities coming, chasing and rounding up the children? His escape? Going to the river, washing, on the bridge, two months passing, wandering the city?
5. The woman, the offer of help, taking him home, food, comfort, the man and the promise, paedophilia, the clients, Saroo and his escape?
6. The police collecting him, his pronunciation of his town, the advertisements in the paper, no responses? In the institution, his photo, the other children, the discipline?
7. The kind official lady, the interview, the arrangement of the adoption, the classes on table manners and vocabulary, the other children? Her promoting Australia?
8. The flight to Australia, the woman accompanying, John and Sue at the airport, the strangeness for the Indian boy in these comfortable surroundings? The parents taking Saroo home, their love, the house, settling in, embrace? The portrait of Sue and John and his persons?
9. One year passing, the brother arriving, his tantrums?
10. 20 years passing, Saroo at home, relating to his parents, the life in Australia, his accent? The troubles with his brother, his visits? His going to Melbourne, the studies of lectures, hotel management?
11. The meeting with Lucy, American, the skipping in the street, the bond between them, dinner with their friends, some from India? Saroo explaining that he was adopted? This awakening his memories, the sense of loss, their variety of suggestions for him to follow?
12. His going to Hobart, Saroo and Lucy together? His preoccupation, the maps, distances from Calcutta, checking the speeds of trains in those days, looking at Google Earth? The effect, greater preoccupation, the worry of his parents, Lucy's worries? The meals at home?
13. The device of intercutting the past, Guddu and his life? Saroo imagining what it might have been like, with his brother, returning to his mother? The emotions?
14. Saroo staying alone, pondering on the beach, in the water? His father coming to urge him to see his brother? The dinner, his insulting his brother and later revisiting and apologising? The character of the brother, angers, drugs, his life?
15. Sue, her emotions, the scene of the talk with Saroo, the story of her breakdown, her vision, the electric shock and recognising the brown boy, Sue and John deciding to have no more children, too many children in the world, but helping the poor? Life fulfilment?
16. Lucy, going to New York, discussions with Sue, trying to reunite with Saroo, his hesitations? Her waiting for his return from India?
17. Saroo in his hut, Google Earth, going beyond the circle, the search, the town, the name and its pronunciation, the water tower?
18. His return to India, the flights, the train ride, the jelebis and his memories with Guddu, in the town, his feeling, asking in the street, the man leading him to the procession, finding his
mother, reunited, with his sister? The sad news of Guddu's death?
19. His communicating back home, saying the questions were answered, the hole in his heart filled, his bond with Sue and Jon, with Lucy?
20. The final information about his name, Sheru and Lion?
21. The final credits, the visuals of Sue going to India and meeting Sheru's mother?
