Today in Travelling with Diamond, we’ll visit various places in India, the inspiration behind Lion, a movie about a five-year-old Indian boy who gets lost thousands of miles from home. He survives many adversities until he is adopted by a couple in Australia, but twenty-five years later, he sets out to find his family of origin.
One of the most important locations in the film is Kolkata, which is depicted as a chaotic place from the protagonist's perspective. Throughout the film, you can see different famous places in the city such as the Howrah Bridge, Flury’s tearoom in Park Street, the heritage houses in the north of the city, and the Basu Bati, one of the most famous buildings in Kolkata that is more than 130 years old.
Another protagonist of the film is India's historic railway network. We can see at the beginning of Lion Howrah station, where Saroo's great odyssey through different parts of the country begins.
The film also shows us one of India's traditional foods: Jalebi, a funnel cake. Saroo, the character played by Dev Patel (The Man Who Knew Infinity), is transported back to his childhood when he sees Jalebis at a friend's party in Australia. It is a street dessert, a combination of textures, crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside, that he craved as a starving child in northwest India.
Lion, directed by Garth Davis and starring Nicole Kidman (Secrets in Their Eyes, Destroyer), is based on the autobiographical story of Saroo Brierley and his book A Long Way Home. A film that delves into different themes such as family, identity, roots, and the different bonds that are part of our lives.
Stay tuned for more trips!
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