Lion is an emotional rollercoaster that makes you feel agonizingly worried and heartwarmingly inspired all in the same couple of hours

Rating: 9/10 (16 January 2019)

Director Garth Davis takes the compellingly true story of Saroo Brierley and turns it into an emotional screenplay to touch the hearts of many. Davis, a somewhat novice director, is better known for directing the television series Top Of The Lake (2013) and hasn't created much else since releasing Lion in 2016. While Davis hasn't has much experience creating major motion pictures, this sure doesn't show in the production of Lion.
Starting out in a small town in India, young, and perfectly casted, Saroo (played by the adorable Sunny Pawar) mistakenly boards a train taking him almost a thousand miles away from his home and family.
The entire first half of Lion is in Hindi, meaning watchers have to read the dialogue in subtitles. Some critics don't like having to read subtitles for a good portion of the movie, but I applaud Davis for this choice. I feel if this part of the movie was in English it would lose it's realistic touch. It really feels as though we have been thrown into rural india right alongside Saroo and his family.
After boarding the wrong train, Saroo wanders the streets of Calcutta, India where he faces starvation, and the alarmingly real danger of being trafficked. In addition to the fact that 5 year old Saroo doesn't know his mother's first name nor the correct name of his hometown, he also only speaks Hindi making it virtually impossible to him to communicate with the people of Calcutta, who speak Bengali.
At this point in the film I was so invested in the story of little Saroo I found myself at the edge of my seat willing someone to swoop in and help him. I finally spot Saroo's savior when Noor (Tannishtha Chatterjee) takes him under her wing, or so I thought.
After his stay at Noor's house almost ends tragically, Saroo escapes her grasp and finds his way to an orphanage. He finally finds peace when he is adopted by an Australian couple (David Wenham and Nicole Kidman). At this bittersweet point in the movie, I was conflicted and didn't know whether to feel happy or sad for Saroo. On one hand he finds a safe and loving home; but on the other hand he has to live with the fact that his family will always be searching for him.
The harrowing first half of the movie is juxtaposed with the second half as we are introduced to successful, Aussie Saroo 20 years later. The tragic story of a little boy lost on the streets now transitions into a sort of self- discovery movie as Saroo struggles with finding his identity. While Saroo finds a great job, loving parents and even a stable girlfriend, he continues to struggle with not knowing the life he left behind in India as a young boy. He immerses himself into searching for his hometown using the newly released software Google Earth and a map of India pinned on his wall. Saroo's girlfriend struggles to get him off the couch and out of the house as he becomes more and more obsessed with the idea of finding his family. Saroo is haunted by the idea that he lives this lavish life while his genetic family is still living in extreme poverty.
This movie did a good job of opening my eyes to the catastrophic issues of poverty, starvation, and inadequate child protection services faced by millions of people in underdeveloped countries. It's one thing to read statistics and articles on this subject but another to become totally emotionally invested in characters living in these conditions. At the end of the movie, viewers get a glimpse of real footage taken the day Saroo was reunited with his birth mother. Titles then appear on the screen informing viewers that "Over 80,000 children go missing in India each year", quite a shocking amount. I feel the purpose of this movie was not only to recount the harrowing tale of Saroo Brierley but to encourage viewers to want to help the children in underdeveloped countries (specifically India).
This film did an amazing job recounting a true story and reaching an audience who wouldn't normally watch films about global issues. Lion is a powerful story of searching for your family and finding yourself along the way. I would recommend Lion to anyone who is looking to feel petrified by a harrowing tale, and moved by a heartwarming tearjerker all in the same hour and 98 minutes.