You are lost. You are hundreds of miles from where you live. You know nobody around and initial sampling suggests those you encounter can’t be trusted. You have no way to contact the people you know; also, they don’t know where you went. You don’t speak the language. You have no resources. You don’t know quite how you got to where you are. What do you do?
This is the dilemma of six-year-old Saroo (Sunny Pawar), who ill-advisedly boards a train in NW India and makes it all the way to Calcutta (1,000 miles away) before he can get off. In the dirt-poor village where he grew up, reading and writing is a luxury enjoyed by, pretty much, nobody. Saroo and his older brother Guddu (Abhishek Bharate) amuse themselves by stealing coal directly from passing trains in motion. Thieving from a moving train? Pfffft. Child’s play. Literally. One evening adventure requires the two to split at a train station – Saroo is simply too tired to maraud and Guddu gotta goto getta goody by himself. Saroo wakes, boards an empty train, and is never seen again.
Saroo speaks Hindi; Calcutta speaks Bengali. Add to this complication the idea that Saroo doesn’t know where’s he’s from, has no idea how far he’s traveled and, apparently, 80% of Calcutta citizens are into either child slavery or human trafficking. What’s Bengali for “Artful Dodger?” An impressive dilemma, no?
Sure, go ahead and ask the kid where he’s from; he don’t know the diff between the Taj Mahal and Baba Ganouj – hey, he could be American.
Lion had me for the first half, when Saroo is little; it lost me when Saroo became Dev Patel. Let me just say the story of a little boy alone in Calcut-throat-a is a tad more compelling than the story of a man enrolling in hotel management classes at the local uni. Say, Dev, did you have a specific hotel in mind … ? Perhaps one with “Exotic” or “Marigold” in the title?
If you have a heart, you probably won’t leave this film dry-eyed. I’m certain that the Best Picture nomination stems exactly from said
sentiment, which occurs without being over-manipulative. Lion is based on true material which makes me immediately want for India to explore country-wide child abduction, a national language, and some sort of inclusive citizen databank. This is the positive use of such, conspiracy theorists; personally, I think it outweighs the right to live off the grid … but then, I believe a government owes responsibility to all those who live under its flag, which is, admittedly, a less-and-less popular idea these days.
You have to wait until the end credits to get an explanation of the non-sequitur title. Lion reminded me immediately of two recent films: Bajrangi Bhaijaan, an Indian movie about a lost-by-train mute six-year-old and Lost and Love, a Chinese movie about a man searching the whole of Asia for his child abducted fifteen years earlier. Lion is a little more polished for English-speaking audiences, obviously, but it’s no better than either of those offerings. In fact, I’ll remember the determination of the father in Lost and Love long after I’ve forgotten all about Lion. If I told you this film were the best of the three, I’d be … Lion.
♪Riding that train, could be in Spain
Should have disembarked three states ago
Trouble ahead, Calcutta fail
Do you know the nation I crossed on rail? ♫
Rated PG-13, 118 Minutes
D: Garth Davis
W: Luke Davies
Genre: Train to Hell
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Orphans
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: The India Bureau of Missing Persons
♪ Parody inspired by “Casey Jones”
