Lion (2016 film)

Plot

In 1986, Saroo, a five year old, lives with his elder brother Guddu, his mother and his younger sister in Khandwa, India. Guddu and Saroo steal coal from freight trains to trade for milk and food. One day Saroo follows his brother to a job and they arrive at a nearby train station, where Saroo decides to stay back and take a nap. Guddu tries to wake him up, but Saroo is too tired. When Guddu does not return, Saroo searches for him and boards a train presuming Guddu is aboard. He falls asleep again in one of the compartments, and wakes up to find the train in motion. After several days it arrives in faraway Calcutta, where he doesn't understand the local Bengali language. He stands at a ticket counter and tries to obtain a ticket home, but the attendant does not recognise the name of his village, which Saroo says is "Ginestlay". He spends the night in the station with some street children, but is then forced to run when they are snatched by some adults.

Saroo continues to wander around the city before coming across Noor, a seemingly friendly woman who brings him back to her apartment. She tells Saroo that a man, Rama, will help him find his way home. Saroo, sensing that Noor and Rama have sinister intentions, runs away and escapes Noor when she pursues him. A young man eventually takes Saroo to the police. Unable to trace his family, they put him in an orphanage. Three months later, Saroo is introduced to Mrs. Sood, who tells him she has placed an advertisement about him in several local newspapers, but no one has responded. She then tells him that an Australian couple is interested in adopting him. She begins to teach Saroo English and he moves to Hobart, Tasmania in 1987, under the care of Sue and John Brierley, where he slowly starts to settle in. A year later, they adopt another boy, Mantosh, who has trouble adjusting to his new home and suffers from rage and self-harm.

Twenty years later, Saroo, now a young man, moves to Melbourne to study hotel management. He starts a relationship with Lucy, an American student. During a meal with some Indian friends at their home, he comes across jalebi, a delicacy he remembers from his childhood. He confides that he is adopted, and his friends suggest he use Google Earth to search for his hometown in India. Saroo begins his search, but over time disconnects from Lucy, overwhelmed by the thought of emotions his family must have gone through when he was missing.

Saroo visits Sue, whose health is deteriorating, and learns that she is not infertile, but had chosen to help others in need through adoption, believing that there were already too many people on Earth. Saroo spends a long time searching fruitlessly for his hometown. One evening, while scanning Google Earth, he notices the rock formations where his mother worked, and then finds the area where he lived: the district called Khandwa, and the locality, Ganesh Talai. He finally tells his adoptive mother about his search, and she fully supports his efforts.

Saroo returns to his hometown, where he has an emotional reunion with his biological mother and sister, but learns that Guddu is dead. Guddu was killed by a train the same night that they went to the station as children. Their mother never gave up hope and believed that one day her missing son would return, and never moved away from the village. The film ends with captions about the real Saroo's return to India in February 2012. Photos of the real Australian family are shown, as well as a video of Saroo and Sue meeting his biological mother in India, who deeply appreciates Sue's care for her son. Saroo later learned that he had been mispronouncing his own name, which was actually Sheru, a diminutive for sher, the Hindi word for "lion".

Production

This Australian film is based on Saroo Brierley's memoir A Long Way Home.

While writing the screenplay, Screenwriter Luke Davies acknowledged the challenges of adapting a book that is primarily about an online search. He said:

"It was finding the right balance of the big cinema 'no-no', which is that screens on screens is not good. Yet we felt very strongly that our situation was quite different from the usual procedural crime drama TV model, where there are a whole bunch of actors that are crammed with exposition-heavy dialogue pointing at computer screens. We felt that we were a million miles away from that. The relationship with the technology was instigated by a purely and deeply emotional drive and desire to make it to the end of the myth – to find wholeness with the reunification with the lost mother and to find out who you are."

In October 2014, Dev Patel and Nicole Kidman were cast in the film for the lead roles, although they were nominated in supporting categories. In January 2015, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Priyanka Bose, Tannishtha Chatterjee, and Deepti Naval joined the cast. In April 2015, Rooney Mara, David Wenham, and Divian Ladwa also joined the cast. Pallavi Sharda also joined the film's cast to play Saroo's friend. Hauschka and Dustin O'Halloran composed the film's score.

Filming

Principal photography on the film began in January 2015 in Kolkata, India. In mid-April, filming moved to Australia, in Melbourne and then to several locations in Tasmania, including Hobart. Kidman filmed her scenes in Australia.

Music

Dustin O'Halloran and Hauschka teamed up to write the score for the film.

Sia wrote the song "Never Give Up" for the film which also includes the song "The Sun, The Sand And The Sea" from noted songwriter Jimmy Radcliffe and 'urvasi' by the Indian music composer A R Rahman.

Release

The film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 10, 2016. It served as the opening night film at the Zurich Film Festival on September 22, 2016. It also screened at the London Film Festival on October 12, 2016, and at the Hamptons International Film Festival on October 7 and 8, 2016.

The film was released in the United States on November 25, 2016, in Australia on January 19, 2017, and in the United Kingdom on January 20, 2017.

Box office

As of March 14, 2017, Lion has grossed $48.9 million in the United States and Canada and $71.5 million in other countries for a worldwide total of $120 million, against a production budget of $12 million.

Critical response

Lion received generally positive reviews, with the performances of Patel and Kidman being praised. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, it has an approval rating of 86% based on 200 reviews, with a weighted average rating of 7.3/10. The critical consensus reads, "Lion's undeniably uplifting story and talented cast make it a moving journey that transcends the typical cliches of its genre." On Metacritic the film has a score of 69 out of 100, based on 45 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Brian Truitt of USA Today wrote: "The finale is manipulative in every way, squeezing out the emotions of the audience. But Lion's well-plotted narrative and thoughtful characters suck you in so much that the journey there is totally worth it". Some critics mentioned that parts of the film move along at a slow pace. For example, Anthony Lane of The New Yorker wrote: "... based on a true story; though wrenching, there is barely enough of it to fill the dramatic space, and the second half is a slow and muted affair after the Dickensian punch of the first."