Lion shares a premise with Moonlight, in that it presents a young boy in distinct peril in an environment fraught with danger, all alone until he is taken in by people who wish to help him.  Moonlight takes place in Florida; Lion begins in India before moving to Australia for most of the action, finally finishing back in India as that young boy returns to find the family he lost in childhood.

Based on true events, Garth Davis’ film follows young Saroo (Sunny Pawar, who is superb) from his home town to large, scary Calcutta and an orphanage; there, he is adopted by an Australian couple (David Wenham, Nicole Kidman) and flies to a new life Down Under in Tasmania.  It is only as a student many years later that memories of his former life begin to float to consciousness.  Once that occurs, they torment him until he can no longer function.  At last he has a breakthrough, tells his adoptive parents and makes the trip to India to uncover his past.

Lion is incredibly effective in its early India setting, where young Saroo and his other brother Guddu (Abhishek Bharate) live rather contentedly in poverty, not knowing anything else.  Once Saroo is on his own he shows remarkable fortitude and good judgment in genuinely frightening circumstances.  Then Saroo is adopted, moves to Tasmania and gains another adoptive brother, Mantosh (Keshav Jadhav), who has not the same fortitude.  Years pass and the Brierly boys grow up.  Mantosh (now Divian Ladwa) remains a problem child, even as an adult, but Saroo (now Dev Patel) has a bright future.  That is, until his past begins to interrupt his present and threaten his future.

I don’t really like this next section of the film, where Saroo allows his life to fall apart because of his all-too-vivid imagination and lack of action (nevertheless, it seems to have actually occurred that way).  Saroo casts off his adoptive parents and loses his girlfriend (Rooney Mara) because of his obsession — and yet he refuses to take concrete steps to find his biological family, even when offered help.  Finally he does, and the film ends in a very emotional reunion in India that makes up for Saroo’s earlier inaction and dead ends that plagued his online searches.

Ultimately Lion is a very good film that reinforces the importance of family in two ways: it embraces the need to connect with one’s biological family no matter how much time has passed, but it also embraces the adoptive family as much or more.  Both are reconciled at the end, along with footage of the real Saroo and his real parents — all of them.  And unlike Moonlight, which has a palpable sense of dread running almost throughout its whole story, Lion takes time to shine some light on its characters and provides them with a joyous ending, all the sweeter because it truly took place.  ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2.  24 January 2017.