THE phrase “based on a true story” appearing in a film has the power to invoke a multitude of emotions from moviegoers — ranging from awe, sadness to even horror.
And watching movies supposedly based on factual events gives the viewer pause to reflect on the trials and tribulations faced by the protagonist.
Enter Lion, the feature directorial debut for Australian film-maker Garth Davis made on a $12 million that has gone on to earn more than $103m since its release and nominated for best picture at both the Oscars and Golden Globe Awards.
The movie, based on a 2012 memoir by Indian-Australian businessman Saroo Brierley titled A Long Way Home, tells the story of how a younger Brierley went missing from his home in India and ended up being adopted by an Australian couple.
With a star-studded cast like Dev Patel, Nicole Kidman and Rooney Mara, the movie seems like a box-office hit on paper but it is not the big names who steal the show.
A powerful and heart wrenching performance by eight-year-old Sunny Pawar, a relatively unknown name in show biz who portrayed a young Saroo, made the first 40 or so minutes of the movie unforgettable.
The film begins by showing Saroo, who is from a small village in the district of Khandwa, India, stealing small lumps of coal from a delivery train with his elder brother Guddu (played by Abhishek Bharate), which they later sell to buy food for their family.
All seems well but the story takes a turn for the worse when Saroo accompanies his brother out of town to look for work and falls asleep on a bench at an empty train station. After waking, he tries to locate his older brother but instead, ends up on a decommissioned train where he falls asleep.
The train makes its way to Calcutta with the unwilling stowaway on board and despite his screams for assistance, Saroo is left to his own fate. Once he reaches Calcutta, the Hindi-speaking lad is unable to breach the language barrier as he couldn’t speak a word of Bengali.
With the assistance of authorities a while later, he finds himself in an orphanage. Not long after, he is adopted by Australian couple Sue and John Brierley (played by Nicole Kidman and David Wenham).
The movie skips about 20 years and shows an adult Saroo (played by Dev Patel) doing well in life after being accepted for a hotel management course in Melbourne.
While it seems that Saroo has quashed his traumatic childhood memories in India, a dinner party at a friend’s place triggers an involuntary memory of a young Saroo and Guddu at a sweets shop in India.
Desperate to retrace his roots in India and find his biological family, he enlists the help of Google Earth and begins an emotional and tiring journey, which affects his relationships with his adoptive mother and girlfriend Lucy (Rooney Mara).
His search ends when he finds landmarks similar to his hometown on Google Maps — a village called Ganesh Talai.
After confiding in his adoptive parents, Saroo travels to India to meet his biological mother Kamla Munshi (played by Priyanka Bose) in what is a tear inducing reunion. The moment is bittersweet after Saroo learns his brother had passed away after being hit by a train.
Lion, for all its power, drags a bit in the second half of the film but makes up for its shortfalls in the much anticipated reunion between mother and son.
And if that didn’t break hearts, the realisation that Saroo had actually mispronounced his name will. He was born Sheru, which translates to “lion”.
The real life story of Saroo has brought the issue of missing children in India to the fore. Highlighting that more than 80,000 children go missing in India each year, it has collaborated with agencies working to address this issue.
Overall, Lion is a must watch for moviegoers and I’d give the movie nine out of 10.
