“Based on the book 'Long Way Home' by Saroo Brierley, the movie “Lion” is a story of a young, ambitious and smart 5-year-old boy, named Saroo, from a small village in India. His family is all he knows and loves. His older brother, Guddu, is his one and only role model and father figure. Guddu helps his mother by riding into town to find work and is usually gone weeks at a time. Saroo does a pretty good job at convincing his brother to take him along this time around.
After accidentally getting on a train that takes him thousands of miles from home, young Saroo endures many challenges: trying to talk to patrons at the train station to help him get home, running away from people who want to capture him for who knows what, fending for himself as he tries to survive homelessness for months. It’s truly amazing how this 5-year-old’s instincts are so heightened that he is smart enough to trust his gut to make the choices for survival. He is soon discovered by a university student who takes him to the police station to see if they can help him find his family. Young Saroo is placed in an orphanage and is soon adopted by a young Australian couple.
At a gathering of friends, grown-up Saroo gets a flash of the past and he tells his story to his friends using the memories of his traumatizing five-year-old experiences. One of his friends suggests that he uses Google Earth to help him find the train station where he last saw his brother.
Over a few years, Saroo deals with school, keeping his family together with his difficult adopted brother and holding on to his relationship with girlfriend Lisa, all the while thinking of the possibility that his family is out there still looking for him and his growing desire to find them. The idea consumes him and his life in Australia soon dissolves. At his lowest, he finds himself alone and distraught. You can’t help but think, ‘Maybe he won’t find them after all and he will destroy himself with this obsession.’
The film is well made, simple and true.”
~ Tristanne Endrina
I couldn't help thinking of Saroo's search for his mother as a metaphor for the spiritual return to our true home. The little boy’s name in the movie was “Saroo”. He found out years later as an adult, he’d mispronounced his name all along, which was “Sheru”, which is a Hindi version of the word for “lion”. This was explained at the very end of the credits.
I couldn't help thinking of Saroo's search for his mother as a metaphor for the spiritual return to our true home. The little boy’s name in the movie was “Saroo”. He found out years later as an adult, he’d mispronounced his name all along, which was “Sheru”, which is a Hindi version of the word for “lion”. This was explained at the very end of the credits.
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