I finally decided to watch LION, the motion picture that got a lot of attention during last award season. It’s based on a true story about an Indian boy who gets lost one night on a train and eventually gets adopted by an Australian family and 25 years later tries to find his birth mom and brother by using Google Earth and Google maps. I pretty much could predict what would happen but there were some unexpected surprises though. For example, the ending was so touching and not entirely your traditional Hollywood ending either because it was based on true events.
I have to admit that this story truly touched me deeply than I expected for a couple of personal reasons. One of them being the father of an adopted son so the experience that the parents of Saroo went through was totally understandable to me. I loved how this movie handled the situation of adoption too. It really showed how adopted parents become your true parents because they raise the child and the bonding is real. I can tell you from my own personal experience that I love my adopted son as much as my other two children and I would do anything to protect him just like his brother and sister.
The other reason why this touched me so much was because my little brother Lou resembled Saroo so much and it brought back so many memories of our youth growing up on the streets of Newark New Jersey. Now, I know we were not as poor as the boys in the film but we were certainly poor enough to understand how they felt. One of my favorite scenes was when Saroo and his brother looked at a particular food that was too expensive for them to buy and they vowed to someday buy it and then later in the movie the grown up Saroo sees this food at a party and he smelled it and tasted it and then remembered his childhood and his brother. It was a powerful scene… because food and memories go together so well. Here’s Saroo enjoying the food that makes him remember his youth and his brother.
Here are photos of my brother and Saroo at age 5.
Anyway, if you get the chance, try to watch this wonderful movie. The lead actor won the BAFTA award for best supporting actor and he should have won the Oscar too. He was that good.
Trailer
Here’s the wonderful song “NEVER GIVE UP” by SIA