Film: Lion

Director: Gareth Davis

Genre: Drama

Date Watched: 18/08/2020

BRIEF PLOT OVERVIEW

Lion, directed by Gareth Davis, is based on a true story of a young boy, Saroo, who gets lost on a train which ends up taking him thousands of kilometres across India away from both his home, family and life. He learns how to survive on his own, who to trust and basic survival skills before resulting in him being adopted by an Australian couple from Tasmania. Over the course of this time, his adopted parents foster another young Indian boy, resulting in Saroo’s life becoming more complicated and hard. 25 years later, with only a basic understanding of where he is from, blurry memories and the help of technology such as Google Earth, he sets off to find his family he lost many years ago and return to his hometown. 

CHARACTERS YOU FOUND INTERESTING AND WHY

I found Saroo an interesting character in the film. This is because from such a young age he had to learn skills that somebody that young, nor anybody at all should have to learn. He experienced so many things at such a young age as well and took them with open arms and did what he had to do, to survive. Just the thought of a 5-year-old separated from his family for 25 years is bad enough as it is, but when you add in the fact that he was lost in India, a country with over a billion people and was the child of an uneducated poor single mother, it really does make for a sad and stressful situation. This kind of situation happens in India every single day, with most children never finding their way back home. They either end up dead or in the hands of heartless people who just use children for various illegal and unethical operations. The fact that this one boy, Saroo, survived this situation is inspiring and shows how much he grew and matured throughout the film in order to not only survive but live. “You keep telling me how little I am, but see how clever I am”, Saroo. This is a quote from the film that really stuck with me. At 5, Saroo was already so smart and clever, working for the money that they had and from here he only got smarter and wiser. Throughout the film he grew and matured with every significant experience he got himself caught up in. He would go and help his older brother get coal and sell it for money at the local markets, this was their source of income that the whole family lived on day in and day out. This is where the problem went wrong, as Saroo fell asleep on the train one night when at work with his brother, causing him to become lost. Although Saroo ends up in an area of India that speaks Hindu rather than his language Bengali, he quickly learns the basics and learns the rules of survival from watching other street children. This here shows how much knowledge he learns quickly in order for him to grow as a character and survive. I believe that Saroo grew as a character in the text, going from a 5-year-old lost boy in India to finding himself safe in a home in Tasmania, Australia to then 25 years later managing to figure out where he is from by tracing back his steps and eventually finding himself back in his home country, and home town with his mother and the people who he grew up with 25 years earlier. 

MESSAGES YOU TOOK FROM THE TEXT(S) AND WHY

A key message I took from the film is missing children is a massive problem in the world today, anything can happen unexpectedly at any point so you need to make the most of your family and life as you never know when it will be compromised. This message really stood out to me because personally, a lot of my family has passed away and looking back and reflecting on them, I felt as though I took the time I had with them for granted not realising that one day it would come to them not being here anymore. I think that this is the case with many people as you are everyone is so used to being with their close family and friends everyday, every week, every month or if not, at least seeing them a couple times a year, and that it isn’t until they are really gone that you realise how important the time with them was and the memories you made were. For me personally, within 5 months, I lost 5 close family members, a couple who were only weeks apart which had a huge toll on not only myself but my whole family and extended family as well. It wasn’t until my grandad fell ill in March, that I started to understand the importance of the time you have with your family and that you should never take it for granted. Because of my personal experiences, this was a key message that stood out to me in the text and I think that it is an extremely important message that everyone should understand. I believe that many people were and still currently are in the same situation that I was in, in taking people, time and memories for granted. Many people do not see the importance of valuing the time you have with your loved ones as it is normal to see them and you tend to see them everyday anyway. In the text, Saroo was one day safe with his family and loved ones in his home and town that he was familiar with. Next minute, he is lost on a fast moving train in the middle of nowhere, thousands of kilometers from his home, away from his loved ones who he never thought at the time he was probably going to see again. Little did he know at the time, his older brother who inspired him and who he looked up to, passed away that night, never seeing him again. From here on, Saroo went 25 years without seeing his biological mother, and went the rest of his life without seeing his older brother. This is just one real life example of why you shouldn’t take time and your family for granted as you never know when you will see them again. This happens in India all the time, and unfortunately most kids never make it back home. This is the same in many other countries too.

CHALLENGES THAT CHARACTERS HAD TO DEAL WITH AND YOUR RESPONSE TO THESE

I think that Saroo faced many challenges throughout the film, from living in a cold home, poor with next to no food to being an adoptee in a completely different country. As well as this, for his entire childhood, he never really knew where he came from, his culture and overtime, his family as towards the end before he went back to find his home, he hadn’t seen anyone in over 25 years, causing his memories to fade especially as he was so young. “Do you have any idea what it’s like knowing my real brother and mother spending every day of their lives looking for me? Huh? How every day my real brother screams my name? Can you imagine the pain they must be in not knowing where I am?”. This is a single challenge alone that Saroo faced every single day for 25 years. Knowing that his mother was out there having no idea where he was, looking for him every single day not knowing whether he would ever come back or not. Where was he, is he alive, is he dead, would have been questions that she asked herself every single day. As well as this, Saroo coming to terms with his brother being dead at the end of the movie, would have been another challenge that he faced thinking for 25 years that he was alive to then find out that he was hit by a train later the same night that Saroo went missing. “We… we… weren’t blank pages, were we? Like your own would have been. You weren’t just adopting us but our past as well. I feel like we’re killing you”. This is a quote from Saroo in the film talking to his adopted mother about their adopted parents adopting them and bringing them back to Tasmania for a safe upbringing. This again is another challenge that Saroo would have faced in the film, knowing that his adopted mother and father were not his ‘real’ parents and that his biological mother was out there somewhere. Saroo also had an adopted brother who was also Indian and suffered from mental illness from being on the streets from such a young age and all of the trauma that he had faced alongside that. Because of this, Saroo grew up with a physically and mentally abusive adopted brother that caused him stress and pain as well as his adopted parents. He, his entire childhood had the constant feeling of guilt and pain for not only himself but his adopted parents having to “put up” with not only himself who was not really their biological child, but also their other adopted son who abused them from such a young age. This happens all over the world today as children are faced with such trauma and exposed to certain things from such a young age that it sets them up with mental illnesses and disorders for their entire life, resulting in them affecting all of the people around them. Especially, and in this case, children that grow up on the streets and in poverty as they are exposed to gangs and in many cases used for illegal and unethical practices. 

DISCUSSION ABOUT THE TITLE OF THE TEXT(S) AND WHY IT WAS APPROPRIATE

The title of the text is extremely appropriate for the film in the way of the meaning behind the word ‘Lion’ in the movie. The title is drawn from the character’s real name “Sheru” which means lion in Hindi. The film ends with captions about the real life Saroo’s return to India in February 2012, including facts such as that his brother was killed by a train on the same night that they were separated as children. Saroo later learns that he has been mispronouncing his own name, which was actually Sheru. 

WHO WOULD YOU RECOMMEND THIS/THESE STORIES TO AND WHY

I would recommend this film to anyone who is going through a hard time. This is because this movie really does show that even though things may be tough, life is hard and unfair, and although things seem never-ending, it does get better. This can be shown in the film as Saroo was lost, and underwent a series of events, some traumatic and others comforting throughout his childhood, and in the end, he made it back to his home, safe with his biological mother. I would also recommend this film to anyone who may have been adopted when they were younger and doesn’t remember or only remembers vaguely of where they are from. This is because if they are struggling with the fact that they are unsure of where they come from and want some reassurance that it is possible, this movie is perfect, It will give the viewer hope that it is possible to find their biological parents and where they are from. This film could possibly even change the viewer’s life. I found this film easy to understand as I have a family member that does not know their biological father and I have seen the pain and hurt that it sometimes causes them not knowing their dad. As well as this, the message to the text of making the most of your family and life as you never know when it will be compromised was easily relatable for me.