James Davis ’18

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Lion is a new movie that has just been released. The film depicts, the story of a young Indian boy’s 25-year journey home to his family. The journey involves a boy named Saroo who begins the film by stealing coal from a train with his older brother named, Guddu. The film portrays Saroo’s getting lost, his journey to safety and love with a new family, and his efforts to find his biological family.

The film begins with Saroo as a young boy in his hometown in India where he steals coal and trades it for milk at the market. This scene revealed just how poor the family was and how hard it was to make money to feed themselves. After returning home the boys journeyed to the train station and got off several towns later. Guddu, Saroo’s older brother then journeyed into the darkness and left Saroo at the train station to sleep. Saroo then woke a few hours later, he began to explore a new train that had arrived while he was sleeping. He then falls asleep on the new train and wakes when the train is in motion. He is then scared and when the train stops he is left alone in a faraway city, Calcutta, where no one speaks the language he knows. After avoiding be captured by the police and taking food from a monastery, he is rescued by some women, or so it would seem. Saroo later learns that the women plan to sell him into some type of slavery, and he flees their home.  Saroo is then homeless for about two months. The generosity of a man lands Saroo in an orphanage from he was later adopted by a family in Australia (Nicole Kidman and David Benham). After living in Australia for about 20 years, he (Rev Patel) begins to search to find the family he left in India.

This film portrays the devotion and deep love that this boy developed for his family at such a young age. Although Saroo was only five years old when he left home, his memory of his hometown and the train ride he never planned stayed with him for 25 years. In addition, this film reveals some of the problems that India faces often and still has not found a reliable solution for. I really enjoyed this movie even though I am not usually a fan of dramas. This film is captivating and really connects the audience to the characters and their emotions. This film is packed with revelations about problems in other parts of the world.