4 REASONS WHY DEV PATEL’S LION HAS US EXCITED

In November 2016, a much-awaited film is going to hit the stands. Named Lion, starring Deb Patel as the homeward bound Saroo Brierley who found his birth mother after twenty five years of separation using Google Earth, the movie promises to sweep the award circuit. We have here four reasons why you should go watch it.

The theme of homecoming is a common one for movies, and it usually makes for arresting viewing in the hands of an accomplished filmmaker and actor. The film, Lion, starring Dev Patel and due to release in November 2016, is the real life story of Saroo Brierley, whose autobiography, A Long Way Home, is being adapted to celluloid by director Garth Davis.

Here are a few (by no means all) reasons why we think you should watch this movie.

1. It captures the contrast between Australia and India perfectly.
This is a story of Saroo Brierley, who lives for the first five years of his life in Madhya Pradesh, India, and then gets adopted by an Australian family and gets taken to Tasmania. At the age of 25, aided by Google Earth, he returns to India and tracks down his birth parents. The movie therefore offers a great contrasting study of life in the two countries, from the greens of Tasmania to the oranges and reds of India.

2. It has an all-star cast
Apart from Dev Patel, who shot to fame with Slumdog Millionaire and gave good accounts of himself with performances in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and The Last Airbender, this movie stars the ever effervescent Nicole Kidman as his adoptive mother, Rooney Mara as his adoptive father, and Tannishtha Chatterjee as the love interest.

3. It marries age-old emotions with technology
The other important character, always present in the movie, is Google. The film combines the age-old theme of homecoming and nostalgia with modern technology to give us a truly transformative experience. It is likely to relate to many of our own experiences of finding old friends through technology and rekindling childhoods loves. In this sense, this is very much a movie of its times.

4. It will probably be an awards ceremony favourite
If the rumours are to be believed, the film is already doing the rounds in the awards circuit and is garnering great reviews. This might or might not be true, but if the juries at awards ceremonies are saying good things about the movie, we think that you can take a punt at it and watch it before it becomes famous. That way, you can be one of the early watchers who ‘got in before the crowd’.