Review: Lion (PG)

One man’s extraordinary true-life odyssey – to locate the birth mother and older brother he lost at the age of five – provides the inspiration for Garth Davis’ life-affirming drama, which looks set for recognition in multiple categories at next month’s Academy Awards.

Screenwriter Luke Davies has skilfully adapted the non-fiction book A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierley, elegantly cutting back and forth between traumatic events more than 20 years apart to accompany the lead character on his seemingly hopeless quest for emotional closure.

Dev Patel and Sunny Pawar are both terrific as the 26-year-old and five-year-old incarnations of Saroo, who is unexpectedly transplanted from rural Khandwa, to Calcutta and then onto Australia.

Saroo (Sunny Pawar) lives in 1987 Khandwa with his mother and siblings. The five-year-old idolises his 12-year-old brother and the two boys embark on a night-time excursion to the local railway station. A twist of fate separates the children and Saroo is trapped aboard a train, ending up in Calcutta. Eventually he is placed with adoptive parents John and Sue Brierley (David Wenham, Nicole Kidman) in Hobart, Tasmania.

Years later, Saroo (now played by Patel) is encouraged by his girlfriend Lucy (Rooney Mara) to track down his birth family. Lion is a majestic, heartfelt drama that delivers an almighty emotional wallop as Saroo pieces together his past. Director Davis deftly moves between timeframes as he elicits riveting performances from Patel, Pawar and Kidman as a proud mother who will never stand in the way of her beautiful boy tracing his bloodline.

On general release