Given how the awards season conversation generally tends to go, movies are quickly slotted into various “types,” with their complexity reduced to a few quick descriptors. It can be a disappointing experience for the filmmakers who have spent considerable time crafting films they hope are resonating on multiple layers. And for “Lion,” star Dev Patel hopes that audiences don’t just box it in as another “Slumdog Millionaire” style story (because it really isn’t).
“Everyone will pigeonhole you into, ‘Oh, he’s playing an Indian guy. The movie is kind of set of India and there’s poverty, so it’s like ‘Slumdog,’ ” he told The Los Angeles Times. “It’s such a shame. That’s just naiveté to me. It just takes away from all the hard work.”
“There aren’t many roles written for someone that looks like me. It’s slim pickings,” he continued. “It’s difficult, but I try and stay on the optimistic side. I want there to be people that look like me represented on screen. Because when I was growing up, the only person that I could look up to that kind of resembled what I looked like was Bruce Lee.”
Co-starring Nicole Kidman and Rooney Mara, and directed by Garth Davis, “Lion” tells the true story of Saroo Brierley, who was raised in rural India, and as a young child, was separated from his family, and eventually adopted and raised by a loving family in Australia. Now grown, he wants to reconnect with this past, and starts on a journey to discover where he came from. Here’s the official synopsis:
Five-year-old Saroo gets lost on a train which takes him thousands of Kilometers across India, away from home and family. Saroo must learn to survive alone in Kolkata, before ultimately being adopted by an Australian couple. Twenty-five years later, armed with only a handful of memories, his unwavering determination, and a revolutionary technology known as Google Earth, he sets out to find his lost family and finally return to his first home.
“Lion” is now playing in limited release and expands on Christmas Day.
