TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Tearjerker 'Lion' makes you rethink your life
Change Size
A still from 'Lion.' (The Weinstein Company/File)
A
ustralian film Lion recently received a total of six nominations for the 89th annual Academy Awards which, after watching the movie, feels well-deserved.
Directed by Garth Davis, the movie is based on the true story of Saroo Brierley. The story, which kicks off in Khandwa village in Madhya Pradesh, India, follows 5-year-old Saroo (Sunny Pawar) who is helping his brother Guddu (Abhishek Bharate), steal some coal from a moving train. The movie then continues with the two boys arriving at home, showing the viewers that they come from a poor family.
One night, Guddu is about to leave home for a week to get a job in a nearby station. Saroo does not want to be left alone and insists on accompanying his brother to the station. Guddu decides to take Saroo along and they later board the train to Burhanpur.
When they arrive, the young Saroo feels tired. Guddu leaves Saroo on the platform and promises to come back soon. When Saroo wakes up from his sleep, he finds himself alone in the dark station. He looks for his brother and enters an empty train car, assuming Guddu must be there. He falls asleep and wakes up when the train moving. He screams his lung out, but no one is listening.
(Read also: List of nominees for the 89th annual Academy Awards)
The train finally stops in Calcutta. Saroo then goes through some challenges before being sent to an orphanage. He spends a year there and is finally put up for an adoption.
Saroo then flies to Australia to meet his caring adopted parents, John and Sue Brierley. He lives a new life until his childhood memories return to him. With close to zero knowledge about his place of origin, the grown-up Saroo (Dev Patel) tries to find his home by searching through Google Maps.
Lion is a tearjerker of a film. The plot is beautifully written and it adapts the story well without ignoring the imperfections of Saroo's later life. Davis made the right decision by filming in India and Australia because it gives off a strong feeling of reality.
While Dev Patel and Nicole Kidman received Oscar nominations for this movie, Pawar leaves a greater impression than the two Hollywood actors as he portrays the young Saroo perfectly. As a child, his naivety and awkwardness adds soul to the scenes.
All in all, Lion is the type of movie that makes you rethink your life and begin to believe that every cloud has a silver lining. (kes)
