Lion: An amazing tale told well

Cast:   Dev Patel, Rooney Mara, David Wenham and Nicole Kidman

Rated: 7/10

The film ends with the adopted mother coming all the way from Tasmania to an unknown belly of India called Khandwa to hug the biological mother of Saroo and one would have wanted to know more of life after. But Lion does not tell you that.

What it tells you is an amazing, rare and incredible story of a small boy lost in a train, marooned in the bad streets of Kolkata for some years, taken to a shady orphanage and then getting miraculously adopted by a childless couple all the way away in Hobart.

He grows up there and it is only after 25 years that he makes an amazing return to his roots of which he did not know or remember anything other than the place he called “Ganeshtalay”. It’s not on the map, it’s not even in his memory and no one knows how far it is from Kolkata where he was found. But he finds it, and that’s an amazing part of the journey that this sensitively made film delves into.

With Nicole Kidman as the adopted mother and Priyanka Bose as the biological one, Dev Patel flowers as Saroo and his faded memories with the finesse of a seasoned actor. He is good, so is Nicole and others, but it is the story that is the ultimate winner.

An Oscar or more for such a stunning tale any day. So, only correct that it received six Oscar nominations at the 89th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor (Patel), Best Supporting Actress (Kidman) and Best Adapted Screenplay. Way to go really.