Name: John Lloyd M.

Balla Date: March 2019

Year & Section: BSCE – 1A Professor: Sir Corpuz
SSP 1 “Film Critique”

INTRODUCTION

Lion (2016) – Australian-Indian Film Critique

Directed by: Garth Davis

Produced by: Ian Canning

Angie Fielder
Emil Sherman

Lion is a 2016 biographical drama film directed by Garth Davis (in his feature debut) and

written by Luke Davies, based on the non-fiction book A Long Way Home by Saroo
Brierley. The film stars Dev Patel, Rooney Mara, David Wenham and Nicole Kidman, as
well as Abhishek Bharate, Divian Ladwa, Priyanka Bose, Deepti Naval, Tannishtha
Chatterjee, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Sunny Pawar, and tells the true story of how
Brierley, 25 years after being separated from his family in Burhanpur, sets out to find
them.

The film, which had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on
10 October 2016, was given a limited release in the United States on 25 November
2016, by the Weinstein Company before opening generally on 6 January 2017. It was
released in Australia on 19 January 2017 and in the United Kingdom on 20 January
2017.

Lion received six Oscar nominations at the 89th Academy Awards, including Best

Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Patel), Best Supporting Actress (Kidman) and Best
Adapted Screenplay.
SUMMARY

In 1986, Saroo, a five-year-old boy, lives with his elder brother Guddu, his mother and
his younger sister in Khandwa, India. Guddu and Saroo steal coal from freight trains to
trade for milk and food. One day, Saroo follows his brother to a job and they arrive at a
nearby train station, where Saroo decides to stay back and take a nap. Guddu tries to
wake him up, but Saroo is too tired. When Guddu does not return, Saroo searches for
him and boards a train presuming Guddu is aboard. He falls asleep again in one of the
compartments, and wakes up to find the train in motion. After several days, it arrives in
faraway Calcutta, where he does not understand the local Bengali language. He stands
at a ticket counter and tries to obtain a ticket home, but the attendant does not
recognize the name of his village, which Saroo says is "Ganestalay". [4] He spends the
night in the station with some streetchildren, but is then woken up and forced to run
when a group of men try to kidnap them.

Saroo continues to wander around the city before coming across Noor, a
seemingly friendly woman who takes him back to her apartment. She tells Saroo that a
man named Rama will help him find his way home. Saroo runs away, sensing that Noor
and Rama have sinister intentions, and escapes Noor when she chases after him. After
two months of living near the Howrah Bridge, Saroo is taken to the police by a young
man. Unable to trace his family, they put him in an orphanage. Three months later,
Saroo is introduced to Mrs. Sood, who tells him she has placed an advertisement about
him in several local newspapers, but no one has responded. She then tells him that an
Australian couple is interested in adopting him. She begins to teach Saroo English and
he moves to Hobart, Tasmania in 1987, under the care of Sue and John Brierley, where
he slowly starts to settle in. A year later, they adopt another boy, Mantosh, who has
trouble adjusting to his new home and suffers from rage and self-harm.

Twenty years later, Saroo, now a young man, moves to Melbourne to study hotel
management. He starts a relationship with Lucy, an American student. During a meal
with some Indian friends at their home, he comes across jalebi, a delicacy he
remembers from his childhood. He confides that he is adopted, and his friends suggest
he use Google Earth to search for his hometown in India. Saroo begins his search, but
over time disconnects from Lucy, overwhelmed by the thought of emotions his family
must have gone through when he was missing.

Saroo visits Sue, whose health is deteriorating, and learns that she is not infertile, but
had chosen to help others in need through adoption, believing that there were already
too many people on Earth. Saroo spends a long time searching fruitlessly for his
hometown. One evening, while scanning Google Earth, he notices the rock formations
where his mother worked, and then finds the area where he lived: the Ganesh Talai
neighbourhood of the Khandwa district. He finally tells his adoptive mother about his
search, and she fully supports his efforts.

Saroo returns to his hometown and with the help of a local English speaker, has an
emotional reunion with his biological mother and sister. He also learns that Guddu is
dead. Saroo's mother never gave up hope and believed that one day her missing son
would return, and never moved away from the village. The film ends with captions about
the real Saroo's return to India in February 2012, including the fact his brother Guddu
was killed by a train the same night that they were separated as children. Photos of the
real Australian family are shown, as well as footage of Saroo introducing Sue to his
biological mother in India, who deeply appreciates Sue's care for her son. Saroo later
learned that he had been mispronouncing his own name, which was actually Sheru,
meaning "lion".
ANALYSIS OF THE EVENTS
Analyzing the plot of the story is one of the most important Part in doing a Film
Critique, In a movie Lion by David Garth It said that it is based on the true story and I
can confirm that as I watching the film, Watching Every Scene of the film is highly
recommended because the film is hard to understand as it offers unexpected confusing
Flashback or Hallucination something that came from the Protagonist.

Let’s go back to the First half of the film where Saroo (The Lost Child) and it’s
Older Brother Gaddu enjoying each other’s company as they Stealing coal from the
Running Cargo Train and Trade it in exchange of 2 plastic of Milk. This part is a very
realistic scene as it offers reality, What I mean is it shows the reality of the world we live
in, where poverty exist and in order to survive unnecessary actions are needed such as
Stealing.

Next part, in where Saroo is was sleeping under the tunnel and when he woke up
his newly met child was taken by some people whose for me are criminals who used
children as slave beggar and when Saroo go to the culcutta Station to as for some help
to the walking passenger and also to the tickter teller. On this part it shows Cruelty
against vulnerable people, nowadays if you’re vulnerable you are exposed of
Judgement, Criticism, and most of all judgement from the people around you but I liked
how the characters resolves every problem that he’s encountering despite on his age

And the last climax where Saroo is already a young man, as an adopted person in
reality the desire of Meeting their biological parents cannot be taken as it completes the
missing pieces of their real identity as a person, in Saroo’s Case he feel the same that
time when he feels incomplete, remembering his past is much harder than being
adopted without knowing your past.
CREATIVE ELEMENTS
Characters

Saroo – The main character in the film, he was the lost little boy who grew up with
Sue.and John Brierley (The Family who adopts saroo).
Guddu – The Older brother of Saroo.
Kamla- The Mother of Saroo, Guddu, and Shekila.
Noor – The woman who met Saroo when she is walking at the Railroad, she is known to
do Human Trafficking.
Rama – Said to be a Child predator who wants to bring Saroo to his home
Mrs. Sood – The woman who Arranged the adaptation of Saroo.
Mantosh – The adopted brother of Saroo.
Lucy – The Girlfriend of Saroo

Dialogues

About the dialogues in the movie since I used Subtitle I don’t know if all of the
words are perfectly Translated because we all know that most of the words on the
subtitle are not precise but base on what I’ve read on the subtitle I really can say that
the Dialogues on this movie are Honest, Real, and Sincere as it shows how the
characters convey messages in a real approach specially when Young Saroo is missing
and all by himself you can see that he is not talking that much because it shows that the
character as a child is still confused on what is happening around him in short the
Dialogues moves the Story forward.

Camera
Since the movie is based on a real story Cinematography was really needed,
Throughout the movie I see the Detailed Cinematography done by the Greg Fraiser,
some shots are very powerful without the dialogue of or the main character as well
example on the scene where the character is experiencing a Hallucination or something
in some parts of the movie where he saw or hear his older brother and mother.
Costumes
The film shows the Exact costume that is really needed in every scene, Since Lion
(2016) was filmed in India and Australia we can see throughout the film how the
costume changes as the character progress, we can see on the first part of the movie
Saroo and his community was wearing their Indian Clothes but when Saroo was
adopted by Sue and John his costume became more Modern .

Genre
The Genre of the movie is Biographical Drama since it tackles the biography of
Saroo Brierley The Author of “The long way home” where the Movie “Lion” was based
on.

Tone
The tone in the movie was Changing simultaneously at the first part of the Film
where Saroo and his older brother was buying a milk then Saroo wants to buy a Jalebis
(A street food delicacy in India) the Tone was a combination of Calm & Ambitious, on
the second part It change to worried & Confused when Saroo was all by himself
Searching for his older brother Guddu who died earlier that night, and at the last part of
the Film it becomes Hopeful, and Happiness when Saroo Finally meet his biological
mother after 25 years.

Symbols
After Watching the Film I’ve seen some symbols that might symbolized something
aside from anything else, the first was the scene where Guddu cuddles his Little brother
Saroo on a train while holding a piece of coin after they search ever chair on the train,
on this part I think what the movie wants to show us is The difficulty of earning a money
for the sake of your Family meaning that simple shot represents how vulnerable they
are or poverty affects them so much, Second was the food Jalebis It represents a
promise Between the two brothers I think that is one of the reason why Saroo really
wants the jalebis to make his older brother Guddu to do good on his job and also
Jalebis represents the Identity of Saroo as an Indian. On the scene where he was
gonna take a beer for his friends he saw a pile of Jalebis and on that time he realized or
remember where he came from then after that he shares it to the group, the information
of his childhood.
OPINION
This film manipulated me into thinking that the actual story that happened was much
more emotional that it was actually way or vice versa. When the film chooses to show
real footage throughout the end credits, it shows that the filmmakers took their time in
casting the right talent and showcasing the most important moment in their film to
compare them. Lion is much more powerful than I was expecting it to be and taking very
risky moves that most American films would never do,

Lion was one of the powerful story that I’ve watched and Here is why Lion is an
incredibly powerful story that more people need to see. Riding on a train in his
hometown after being left alone by his older brother Guddu, young Saroo lost on the
streets of Calcutta. Battling his way through the streets in search for his Mother and
older brother, he quickly realizes he is too far from home. Becoming adopted by an
American family, he travels to live with them for over 25 years. Once he becomes a full
grown adult, having a wonderful life with a girlfriend and a family that loves him, he
makes it his mission to locate where he used to live as a child. Filled with incredibly
moving performances from every cast member, Lion is a fantastic look into this true
story that is more than satisfying in its final moments than I excepted, The telling of this
story was perfect from beginning to end, without getting to cheesy and the
performances sell it tenfold. Having said that, there was one aspect that surprised me
more than anything and that was having an American film with more than half of its run
time with subtitles. For a film that does take place in foreign countries half of the time, it
should come as no surprise that it would have subtitles, but I didn't expect the entire first
half of the film to present that. Lion runs about a solid hour in both Hindi and Bengali
before switching over to English when Saroo is adopted. This was a risk that I loved and
serviced the film in so many positive ways. It only made the film better in my opinion,
the fact that they were not trying to make it more generic. The only reason I bring this
up, is to warn certain viewers who may not be expecting so many subtitles. That is only
a warning for the film, not a flaw. I must say, I wouldn't have changed a single moment
of this picture. From start to finish, my eyes were full of tears as I gawked at the
imagery, beautiful storytelling, fantastic camerawork, and jaw-dropping performance,
along with a conclusion that truly took my breath away.

CONCLUSION
To conclude, I don’t know how to express my love for this film enough. I don't
think Lion is manipulative in any way. It spends just the right amount of time in certain
parts of the world and is paced wonderfully. Some people may not quite get enough out
of the romantic aspect between Dev Patel (Saroo) and Rooney Mara (Lucy), but I
completely bought into that aspect of this story. Lion is definitely a film that needed to be
made and I am disappointed that it is not being talked about as much as other awards
contenders. This truly is a wonderful. Emotion, score, direction, performances, and a
screenplay that is not too far overdone are all aspects that make for a wonderful film
based on a true story. Every single one of those aspects are present here and I found
myself in tears throughout the entire duration. Lion is one of the best films of the year
atleast for me.