The tale of an adopted boy from India, ‘Lion’ roars with emotion

The world needed a movie like “Lion.”

While the film is neither novel nor revolutionary, it’s the kind of cinematic warm blanket that feels very comforting and satisfying right now. That it’s a true story — based on “A Long Way Home, “ a best-selling memoir from Saroo Brierley — makes it all the more affecting.

Sunny Pawar is Saroo, a 5-year-old Indian boy living with his two older brothers, younger sister and mother. While they have very little beyond each other, it seems to be enough for Saroo, who is precocious, smart and likes to go everywhere with his brother Guddu (Abhishek Bharate).

But events turn tragic when Saroo and Guddu become separated one night and Saroo mistakenly ends up trapped on a train going to a city he doesn’t know and where they speak a language he doesn’t understand. While vainly hunting for family and familiarity, he is forced to grow up quickly as he becomes a street kid who has to fend off those who would take advantage of him.

The first half of the film follows Saroo’s agonizingly arduous journey that ends with him in an orphanage, where he is adopted by an Australian couple, Sue (Nicole Kidman) and John Brierley (David Wenham), who live in Hobart, Tasmania.

Flash forward several years and Dev Patel (“Slumdog Millionaire,” “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”) is the adult Saroo. Although he’s happy with his life and girlfriend (Rooney Mara) in Australia, he feels guilty for the pain his disappearance must have caused his mother and siblings.

Guilt turns to obsession, and he can think of nothing else but putting the puzzle pieces of his original life together.

In his first feature, director Garth Davis, working from a script by Luke Davies, takes what’s a fairly simple story of finding one’s roots and imbues it with a sense of epic struggle. “Lion,” filmed in Tasmania, Melbourne and Kolkata, is gorgeously shot while Patel turns in what may be his strongest work since “Slumdog.”

Davis deserves special applause for coaxing a believable and heartbreaking performance from Pawar, who has his first role in “Lion.”

“Lion” is the kind of film that if you don’t get just a little bit teary and your heart doesn’t get a little warm, you might want to check to see if it’s still beating.

This story was originally published March 29, 2017 at 7:21 AM with the headline "The tale of an adopted boy from India, ‘Lion’ roars with emotion."