Dev Patel and Nicole Kidman star in 'Lion'

‘Lion’ is based on the true story of Saroo Brierley, who got separated from his family in India as a young boy and ended being adopted by an Australian couple.

Twenty five years later, thanks to“Google Earth”:http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2016/11/story-saroo-brierley-now-featured-google-earth.html, he succeeded in tracing his biological family.

Nicole Kidman, who herself has two adopted children, stars as the adoptive mother.

“The themes of this movie being motherhood and also memory – when you deal with memory and his memories and how he’s able to pull those memories in a Proustian way and find his birth mother through just, sort of, memory work almost, it’s fascinating and true,” says Kidman.

‘Slumdog



Millionaire’ actor Dev Patel plays the grown Saroo. Rooney Mara is his love interest Lucy.

Patel says he went to great lengths to prepare for the role.

“I spent eight months prepping for the role. So, I say it’s like I did a pilgrimage, you know, for Saroo – as Saroo, in a way, and tried to follow in his footsteps. I went to orphanages, traveled on trains across India, writing diaries, trying to create a real emotional memory map that I could key into,” he says.

The film has generated considerable Oscar buzz

and has opened to mostly positive reviews though some have regretted the hint of corporate propaganda behind the fable.

‘Lion’, starring Dev Patel, Rooney Mara and Nicole Kidman, is on global release now.