Take it easy, Urvashi: LION and Cultural Displacement/Connection

There's a Hindi phrase that kept popping into my head while watching Lion: "na idhar ke, na udhar ke." Literally it means neither here nor there. But colloquially it suggests a sense of constant displacement. A lack of belonging in any place. The phrase came to mind during a scene where Saroo (Dev Patel) is walking to a party with his white girlfriend Lucy (Rooney Mara). The sequence is very Bollywood especially with the song "Urvashi Urvashi." The party is hosted by some Indian friends' house. And these friends are immigrants from India. There is Bollywood music playing and a Hindi movie on the TV. Lucy does some Indian dancing, Saroo struggles to eat with his hands. Through his facial expressions and body language, Saroo is visibly uncomfortable. This isn't his culture, his life, even if he is surrounded by people who share his skin tone. In another parry scene--this time, with mostly white people--Saroo is even more uncomfortable and sticks to the wall while Lucy dances with her friends. Saroo seems out of place wherever he goes.

Lion is the directorial debut of Garth Davis, who worked on the acclaimed miniseries Top of the Lake. The film is based on the autobiography A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierly. Adapted by novelist Luke Davies, Lion stars Dev Patel, Rooney Mara, Priyanka Bose, David Wenham, and Nicole Kidman along with debut child actor Sunny Pawar. The cinematography was handled by Greig Fraser (Zero Dark Thirty), with editing by Alexandre de Franceschi (The Painted Veil).

 

Saroo (initially played by Pawar) is a young boy in Khandwa, India. He gets separated from his brother Guddu (Abhishek Bharate) at a train station and ends up in Calcutta, clear across the nation. Unable to speak Bengali, Saroo wanders around trying to get help and ends up in some dangerous situations (including a run-in with a malicious couple played by Bollywood actors Tannishta Chatterjee and Nawazuddin Sddiqui) and eventually ends up at an orphanage. Saroo is soon adopted by Australian couple Sue and John Brierly (Kidman, Wenham). 20 years later, the adult Saroo (Patel) is with his girlfriend Lucy (Mara) when he eats some jalebi (an Indian dessert) and this brings back sudden memories of India and his biological family. Using Google Earth, Saroo obsessively tries to find his family while struggling to maintain relationships with Lucy and and his adoptive family.

Lion is split into two halves: young Saroo and adult Saroo. In India, the adventures of young Saroo are compelling with the language barrier and underbelly horror of Calcutta providing a dangerous and thrilling landscape for Saroo. Lion sidesteps becoming "poverty porn" (albeit narrowly). The filmmaking is handled with grace and immediacy; Saroo is an observant, active protagonist and one who is easily followed. The adult Saroo is just as lost, even in though he's not in an unfamiliar place. His idea of home is questioned, his sense of self. The twin halves of Lion work to bring Saroo back full circle, back to where his story began. The child starts in India and ends up in Australia; the adult starts in Australia and ends up in India. The journey leads you to your home, even if you don't know where that is.

Garth Davis' expansive vision for this film provides the background for this intimate story. While I would have appreciated an Indian director, I think having a foreigner direct the India scenes works pretty well. Because Saroo is also in a foreign area (India is so sprawling, after all), Davis' unfamiliarity with the city works to the film's benefit. And this is also true for the adult Saroo since he has no connection to Indian culture until his search begins.

Lion really worked for me because I identified with the push/pull of his Australian and Indian identities. While I consider myself more in touch with my Indian culture than Saroo does (see my multiple blog entires about Bollywood), I still feel like I belong to both cultures and neither culture at the same time. There's a feeling of restlessness, not quite fitting in everywhere all the time, Movies about young people not fitting in are a dime a dozen (The Edge of 17 is terrific and also playing in theaters). But there are so few movies that play out my exact cultural tug o' war.

The push/pull between cultures is exceptionally performed by both Dev Patel and Sunny Pawar. Patel, in line for an Oscar nomination, is stunning in the role frankly. His confusion and heartbreak is viscerally felt, his obsession is painful to behold. Patel's body language conveys so much about his circumstances--just look at the two party scenes. Sunny Pawar is a curious, expressionistic actor. Even at such a young age, his hopeful eyes command the screen. The little boy is just naturally charismatic.

The supporting cast is strong as well. Nicole Kidman gets to be maternal and nuturing, bringing conviction and sadness to her few scenes. Rooney Mara doesn't have much to do, but she brings out her character's love for Saroo and gives their relationship some life. Priyanka Bose and Abhishek Bharate make their presence felt in their short screen time, and you can see why Saroo still hears them call out to him.

For a directorial debut, Lion is confident and stylish. The film is emotionally effective, and I am positive it will be a crowdpleaser for audiences. How could you not find this story stirring and rewarding? When it comes to the Academy Awards, I think the film could get lost among the competition. For sure, Dev Patel and Nicole Kidman could be nominated--they've been picking up nominations for most of the pre-Oscar awards. Best Picture,  Best Score, and Best Adapted Screenplay nominations could get in there as well. Whether it is nominated or not, I do hope Lion finds its audience. It's the rare film to tell the story of South Asian cultural displacement and connection.

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