Lion Movie Review | Teen Ink

Lion Movie Review

January 25, 2018
By Helgren_2021 SILVER, Cannon Falls, Minnesota
Helgren_2021 SILVER, Cannon Falls, Minnesota
6 articles 0 photos 0 comments

Have you ever been lost in the mall? I think we all have been lost, even if it was five seconds and our parents were right around the corner. Imagine that, you’re five years old and lost in an Indian train station without your parents or older brother. That was how it all began for Sheru. In this review, I share many things about the movie. So beware that this is a spoiler. His mother was having trouble making money and so he decided he would go to work too. He wanted to help his brother, who was working at the meer age of 14. That would for sure help lift some responsibility of his mother's, and brothers, shoulders. However, after hours of traveling he could travel no longer with his older brother, Guddu. So Guddu made a decision to leave Saroo alone, thus beginning his dangerous and lonely journey to find his way home. As I watched “Lion” I found it moving and inspiring, it truly brought me to realize how many children get lost in India every year. 
In the beginning, I began to observe the significant parts in the movie. We first meet the loving family that Saroo has, a caring mother despite her lack of money, and an inspiring older brother. This beginning scene creates a place in our heart that breaks when Saroo finds himself alone. Another significant part in the movie is it starts out in Hindi. It opens our eyes to see how languages can make a difference. In the movie I soon realized that the different languages are like air, everyone needs them to live, they are the most important part, the things that hold our life together. As the movie progresses and Saroo finds himself in a house with other lost children, I started to think the people he found would help him find his parents. But like him, we are betrayed and find he is being adopted by an Australian family. I agree with many people when they say that the middle of the movie began to be a little more slow, not very important, but as I looked I saw it was important for the ending. When Saroo first arrived he didn't know how to speak english, so teaching him to forget his old language was hard. But Saroo eventually learned, forgot his old life, and lived the next 23 years with his new family. Among forgetting where he’s from, his name was lost in translation, originally being Sheru, meaning lion in Hindi. Then he feels something inside him, asking to find his real family. Devoting himself to find his family was hard he loses many relationships including: his friends, his adopted parents, and he feels like giving up. Then something hits him, and using Google Earth he is able to retrace the places he remembers, landing on the place he once called home.
“Lion” is a movie that teaches us things without us really realizing we have learned them. It’s like going to your grandparents house, and talking to them. Before we know it we’ve learned a very important lesson about life. “Lion” is an inspirational movie and I feel it can help others too. Most likely using only Google Earth isn't going to work, but “Lion” shows us that if we try hard enough and are determined to do something, we can and will be able to do it. For me another big thing I found out was that on average 80,000 children are lost in India each year. Most of them are like Saroo, traded, and turned into a child work slave. They are living in poor conditions with thousands of other kids. There are so many people that Saroo meets that tell him they are there to help, but only after he gets adopted is he truly safe. When I watched this movie I found that with many of the things that happened I had my own opinion, and understanding of it.
When I initially started watching the movie I almost didn’t like it because it was in a different language.  I had a hard time keeping up with reading the subtitles and watching the movie. It was either I read the subtitles or just watched the movie. As the movie started to wrap up, I began to love it, he was finally finding the one thing he has been missing all  his life. I think the one thing that hit me the most was that he had be absent for 25 years worth of birthdays, holidays, and family love. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like.
In all, this movie is inspiring and has a nice lightness to it. Despite a slower middle, it had lots of important parts. I think my favorite part of the movie is how it shows us that life may throw us some curveballs and may strike us out, but if we try hard enough, have enough passion we can come back in and play that game of life to its fullest. I believe that this is a nice movie that a family can watch together and be grateful for one another. It shows that, Sheru is a true lion after all.



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