Books vs. Movies
In this podcast we set out to answer the age old question: is the book really always better than the movie?
Books vs. Movies
Ep. 28 A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierley vs. Lion (2016)
Ever wondered how a simple digital tool like Google Earth can reunite a lost child with his family across continents? Join me, Lluvia, as we embark on the heart-rending journey of Saroo Brierley through his memoir "A Long Way Home" and its film adaptation, "Lion." In this episode of Books vs Movies, I recount my deeply personal experience of finally reading the book and watching the movie, which brings to life Saroo's incredible real-life story of loss, adoption, and an emotional quest to find his roots. We’ll uncover the gripping narrative, from Saroo's perilous childhood escape to his life-changing adoption by an Australian couple, and his persistent memories of an Indian home he could barely recall.
We won’t shy away from examining the artistic liberties the filmmakers took—such as changing the gender of a pivotal character and dramatizing Saroo’s relationships, especially with his friend Asra (Amita in the film) and his adoptive brother, Mantosh. I’ll dissect these differences, questioning their necessity and impact. This episode also celebrates the raw performances of Sunny Pawar and Dev Patel, who breathed life into young and adult Saroo, respectively. Expect an in-depth discussion of Patel’s surprising nomination for Best Supporting Actor and my reflections on why the book remains closer to my heart despite the film’s accolades.
Finally, we honor the selflessness of Saroo's adoptive parents, Sue and John, who chose to change a child's world rather than expand their own family. Their decision is a beacon of hope and inspiration, underscoring the real-life goodness at the core of this story. From the poignant escape scenes to the touching reunion, join me for an insightful comparison of the book and movie, celebrating the incredible tale of Saroo Brierley and the power of human resilience and connection.
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Welcome to Books vs Movies, the podcast where I set out to answer the age-old question is the book really always better than the movie? I'm Yuvia, an actress and book lover based out of New York City, and today we will be talking about A Long Way Home by Saru Briarley and its 2016 adaptation, lion, starring Des Patel and Rooney Mara. Hi everyone, so I'm really excited to be talking about this book and this movie, because this movie had been on my to-watch list for the longest time, pretty much since it premiered in 2016. And for whatever reason, I just never went to go watch it in theaters, and I knew I wanted to watch it, but I just never did. I watched other things and, with streaming services, like you always say, you're going to watch something and then it'd be, you know, you get distracted by other things, so I never watched it, and then I found out that this was based on a book, so obviously I wanted the book. So I bought the book and, as I said previously, I buy a lot of books, but I don't always read them immediately, and this is the case for this one. It had been sitting on my shelf since I purchased it in either late 2016 or early 2017 because I moved to New York. It was like mid-2017. So just been sitting on my shelf in Texas for seven years until this last trip that I took. I was able to go back and finally I picked it up and I read it. I started reading it over there and I finished reading it on the plane ride back and I saw the adaptation immediately the next day and now I'm recording this. So, yes, finally I get to cross this off my TBR, off my to watch, and I'm happy about that. Okay, so I will say the film is a very good film.
Speaker 1:Orlando only watched the adaptation with me and he absolutely loved it and I liked it. But I did have some issues with it, and these are some boys in the boat kind of issues. So, if you will remember, in Boys in the Boat, my issue with it was that there was a lot of things that I was like this is already dramatic enough. What is the point of changing it? I understand that things are always adapted for film. Things are altered to make the story flow better, or it's changed to make the story more exciting. If it's like not a very exciting story in terms of the action that got you there and again, like a motivational speech. This is kind of the example that I used in Boys in the Boat, but like if, let's say, someone's life changed for the better after listening to a great motivational speech, that's not as interesting to watch on film if there isn't some sort of like I was bullied and this motivational speech made me forgive my bullies or whatever you know. So I understand that, like changes have to be made for film to make them more interesting and exciting for the medium that it is talking about. But there were some changes that I was like I don't know why these changes were made. Some of them I do understand, but it is overall a very fascinating story, so let's get into it.
Speaker 1:A Long Way Home by Saru Briarley was first published in 2013, and it is the story of Saru Briarley, who used Google Earth to reunite with his long-lost family. So Saru, at about the age of five, got lost in India. He traveled from a train station that he went to with his brother all the way to what is now Kolkata. At the time it was called Calcutta and since he didn't know the name of his family, he couldn't tell anyone where he was from. He ended up in an orphanage and eventually getting adopted by an Australian family. 25 years after being adopted, he was able to find where he was from and eventually reunite with his family back in India. India.
Speaker 1:The 2016 adaptation follows the story of a five-year-old Indian boy who is adopted by an Australian couple after getting lost far from home. 25 years later, he sets out to find his family and is able to reunite with them. So, yes, I mean it is a biopic and obviously it's going to follow the basic storyline. So, yes, that's the film and the book and obviously, as you can hear, it's a very fascinating story in and of itself. And so let's get started with the things that were changed. So I will say that the book I can understand why some of these changes and again, I, when I talk about these changes, I'm only going to be able to speculate as to why they were being made, because I wasn't actually in, like, the writer's room. This is just based on my knowledge and things like that. I will say the book itself is devoid of a lot of conflict.
Speaker 1:Saru is very grateful to his adoptive family and he says that he was never like a rebellious kid. He was very okay with his adoption. Obviously, he didn't fully understand what was going on at the time, but there's just a lot that's like putting into film would probably not be very interesting, admittedly, because reading about it and you know that's different. You know he suspects that the reason why he never rebelled or anything like that, as a child adjusting to new surroundings in a new country, despite not knowing the language and having that to overcome, is just because he had already overcome so much. So his way of dealing with trauma was to shut down, and he shut down emotionally and so that made him very agreeable. So, you know, if something happened, a new kind of like experience was being thrown at him. He would shut down emotionally and not reveal his true feelings but go along with whatever was being told to him, and that was just his way of coping. So Saru grew up very, very poor. He and his family were definitely poverty stricken. He did not always know where his food was going to come from, when he was going to eat next, things like that. So and that was just the trauma of growing up where he did for the first five years of his life, and then, you know, he ended up getting lost really far from home and he had to live on the streets for a while, which added a whole other trauma to deal with. So let's go ahead and get into it. So one of the first changes that were made this is one of the ones that I'm not sure why it was made or what the point of it was and that is the character of Noor.
Speaker 1:Noor is in the film, a woman that Saru comes across as he's walking along the train tracks and she's very kind to him and she says where are you going? And he says I'm gonna go home. And she says where's your home? And he says I don't know. And so she essentially convinces him to like you know, you're kind of just walking along these train tracks aimlessly, it's dangerous. Like, come with me, I will feed you and I know someone that can help you. And so he follows her and she feeds him and she gives him something to drink and he has no reason to suspect that anything is off.
Speaker 1:In the book, the character of Noor, we actually obviously we don't get a name because he didn't know the actual name of this person or he doesn't remember if this person told him his name. He doesn't remember the name of this person or he doesn't remember if this person told him his name. He doesn't remember the name of this person, but the person that actually found him working or who found him along the train was someone who worked at the train station and he was just as kind to Saru, brought him home and said I have a friend who can help you out. And Saru ended up staying with him for a few days. In the film he only stays there overnight and then runs away, but in the book he stays two days actually before he runs away and he runs away for kind of the same reason.
Speaker 1:So in the film the man that Noor says can help him shows up and, very uncomfortable, he gets in bed with this little boy and just lays down next to him and cuddles him in a really creepy manner, obviously like this is a strange grown man getting in bed with this little boy and then, after he talks to him a little bit and he says, oh, I'm gonna help you find your family, don't you worry. He has saru stand up and like he inspects him physically again really creepy and then as he leaves the room he tells Noor and then Saru overhears like great job, this is exactly what they're looking for and that's kind of what clues Saru off that this is not a good situation. And so he runs away. After the man has left and Noor is in the bathroom like getting ready. In the book he actually the same thing happens, except there's no inspection. At the end of this conversation Again, this is one of those things that he talks about, that again he's a five-year-old little boy.
Speaker 1:Initially he didn't really think anything of it when the man was like so in the book, the man lays down in bed first and is like why don't you lay down next to me? And initially, again he's a five-year-old little boy. He's not suspicious and he lays down and he does say like nothing happened, like it could have been a lot worse situation. I was just a very innocent five-year-old kid. But as he's laying down in bed next to this man, he's just started feeling really, really uncomfortable and getting off vibes and so as much as this man was saying like all these wonderful things to him and giving him like false promises, he just felt so off that he knew he could not trust this man.
Speaker 1:And so when the man and the worker of the train station were having like a smoke break at the end of the night, saru's job was to wash the dishes and as he's washing the dishes and as the men step out for their smoke break, he runs away and it's actually a very harrowing escape. Like he talks about how he like bolts out the door, the two men notice him and they chase after him and they trailed him for a while. He was only able to get away because he found like a sewage drainage that was like filthy. You know, you can imagine what it looked and smelled like in there. And so he goes in there and he hid and while he was in there he heard like the two men calling for him, looking for him. There was like some vendors nearby and he could hear them like talking to the vendors asking for him and he was scared. At one point they were going to like look in there and they didn't. So he just had to wait it out until he felt safe enough to come out.
Speaker 1:So that was definitely one of the things that I wasn't quite sure why they changed the character of the male train station worker into this random lady. He had no reason to distrust the train station worker or anything like that. So I feel like they could have kept that. And after he runs out of the apartment, noor does like run out of the building after him, but she doesn't chase after him and the other guy is long gone. So there's no like chase sequence between the two of them that one. I can maybe understand why they didn't do another chase sequence, because we had had one earlier where he's running away from and this happened in the book as well. They're just like these grown men that are snatching children off the street. He has no idea who they are and it's probably a good thing he was never captured by them. But yes, so I can see why they maybe didn't include that chase scene, since we had one earlier. But yeah, I just didn't really see the point in changing the train station worker into Noor. But yes, this one was like very abrupt.
Speaker 1:So he is helped out in the film by a man eating at a cafe. In the book it was a very kind teenager that reminded him of his older brother, gudu, and so that's how he felt, like he was able to trust that teenager, and the teenager is very kind and took him to the police station and the police station from there turned him over to the Lillua Detention Center. So this is exactly what it sounds like. It's a juvenile detention center and there was a mix of kids in there. There were kids that were criminals, there were kids that were orphans like him. There was just a bunch of kids in there that they just kind of they don't know what to do with kids, they just throw them in this detention center.
Speaker 1:And then it is at this detention center that in the film that Mrs Sood is the one shows up and says by the way, we found a family to adopt you in Australia. All right, see you later. Bye. And that does not happen. So he does spend some time at the juvenile detention center before he is sent to isa. I don't remember off the top of my head what it stands for, but it's essentially an adoption agency that focuses mainly on international adoptions. So he shows up there and, like the workers of the juvenile detention center work closely with Issa and say I think like this kid should not be at this detention center, like he's not a criminal. Maybe you can find his or her film was very abrupt how she was like I'm here to help you. You're getting adopted, okay, bye.
Speaker 1:Obviously, again, that one I understand, because it is a little bit longer of a process not as long of a process as it is now. I will say from the moment he left the detention center to getting approved for adoption was about two months. So obviously it does not work that quickly anymore. But yes, so he does end up at Issa and Issa does spend about a month looking for his family. They have no luck, obviously, because he is very far away from home. He's like kilometers and kilometers away from home. So they put the like lost child ad in the newspapers and on posters and things like that in the nearby regions and there was no way his family was going to see that. They were nowhere near where they were searching. So it is after that month. They say we couldn't find your family. I'm so sorry, but would you be okay with getting adopted, saru? Obviously he doesn't really understand, but he says that he felt like even at that young of an age he knew that this was probably the best choice for him or else he would either end up back on the streets or back at the detention center and he did not want to, obviously did not want to go back to either. So he agrees to the adoption and that's when he's adopted by the Briarleys and sent to Australia.
Speaker 1:He does meet this little girl while at the detention center, sent to Australia. He does meet this little girl while at the detention center. I want to say her name is like Mitra or Amita, amita. So he does meet this girl at the detention center named Amita. I think they were going for Asra, who was a little girl that he experienced Issa with, so they were Issa at the same time. They were adopted by Australian families At the same time. They took the journey from India to Australia together and their adoptive families kept in touch and so he grew up seeing Azra every once in a while. So I think Amita was supposed to be a kind of Azra character. But Amita gets left behind in the juvenile detention center and offers some exposition and then in reality Asra was adopted at the same time with him and experienced a lot of the same things he did. And yeah, that was interesting.
Speaker 1:So we fast forward in the film to now he is an adult. It's adult Saru, and it seems so. Saru in the book says constantly that he never forgot that he was lost, like despite being adopted and growing up in Australia, like at the back of his mind he knew that he was like where he was adopted from is not where he was originally from, like he never forgot that and there were some details that were maybe fuzzy but he knew, like he remembered the landmarks, he remembered exactly where, like he would know his hometown, where he saw it, basically, but one of the details that was fuzzy. So he, saru, is from a place called Kandwa in India and he and his brother traveled to a place called Burhanpur, something like that. I know I'm totally butchering that, but they traveled to a place called Burhanpur together, something like that. I know I'm totally butchering that, but they travel to a place called Burhanpur together, which is south of Kandwa, and it is here that he gets lost. So he really really missed his brother.
Speaker 1:He has two older brothers, guru and Kalu, and Guru and Kalu would sometimes travel to Burhanpur to look for work, even though they were both under the age of 15. But this is what they had to do to feed themselves and their family. So Saru really really missed Guru and begged his brother to take him and eventually his brother relented and took him to Burhanpur with him and by the time they showed up it was night. He was really really sleepy. So his brother said wait for me at the station, I will come back and get you. And he leaves.
Speaker 1:And so Saru ends up falling asleep and when he wakes up he can't find his brother and he sees a train and he thinks maybe his brother's on this train. So he gets on and then the train gets off and he's not able to get off the carriage that he found. He does say in the book that that's one of the few mysteries that will never be solved is why that carriage was empty, because having an empty train carriage is unheard of in India. So it's possible that this carriage was supposed to be like out of use. They were taking it to Howrah station in Calcutta to repair it or something I don't know. The point is he thinks it was might've been out of service, which is why no one ever went in there, no one ever found him, and why he was able to travel from Burhanpur all the way to Calcutta.
Speaker 1:But one of the details that's a little bit fuzzy is that he swears that he fell asleep on the train and then about 12 to 15 hours later he arrived at Calcutta. He ends up finding out later that this is not possible, like the journey is about a 29 hour journey. So there's no way that it would. There's no way he could have gotten to Calcutta in less than 29 hours. So, but as a kid he swore it was about 12 to 15 hours.
Speaker 1:But in the film, like he knows, he's talking to his friends and saying like oh, I was lost and I want to find out where I'm from. And his friends that are Indian are asking him oh, like, how long were you on the train? And he says I was on the train for a few days. That was another change. I wasn't really sure why they made that change. Maybe it would have just required too much like explanation, exposition along the way to explain, like why he thought it was 12 hours as opposed to a few days.
Speaker 1:But in the book, the fact that he thinks he was only on the train for about 12 to 15 hours is a very important detail, because this actually impedes his search for his family quite a bit, because so again in the film, like he's adopted and he's full-on Australian for all intents and purposes, like he has completely forgotten his Indian background and this, again, this is one thing that he talks about in the book is that he never rejected his Indian background, the way it's kind of implied in the or not rejected, but just you know it makes sense. He grew up from a young age in Australia so no one would exactly blame him for not remembering how to be Indian quote, unquote, whatever that means. But he does say in the book constantly that like he always knew that he was Indian. Say in the book constantly that like he always knew that he was Indian so it wasn't something that he missed, like he did not miss that part of his culture because he experienced it, he felt it. Even though he wasn't living it necessarily with the Briarleys, he still felt very connected to his Indian culture and so it wasn't until he went to university and made friends with other Indians, with them like he was able it's not necessarily code switching, but it just felt natural, like he didn't feel awkward, like oh, they know all these Indian things that I don't know about. Like he was able to slip into that part of his culture easily and it wasn't like he forgot that.
Speaker 1:If that makes sense as he's talking to his Indian friends in the book, some of them actually grew up in India. Some of them just their parents grew up in India and one of his friends. Actually, his father worked on the Indian railway and so he's able to ask his friend like please ask your dad which station? Because he doesn't know the exact name of the train station because he was five years old and he was mispronouncing it even at the age of five, but he was like I know it's something like bramper or like something like that and it was about 12 to 15 hours away from calcutta. And so his friend asks her dad and the dad is able to be like these are the train stations that sound kind of similar and this is the region that they're in. And so that's how he starts his journey is by looking into these suggestions and then, when he realizes that none of these suggestions are what he remembers, he himself starts like tracking from Calcutta and going to all the different rail stations and he calculates it based on the distance, in which it would be about a 12 to 15 hour distance. So the fact in the film that he knows like it was a few days away not that this helps his situation any better, necessarily, but it is, in the books, an important detail, as it does impede his search quite a bit, since he's not looking in the right places.
Speaker 1:Initially, there's no indication that Lisa in the book that's, his girlfriend is American, so I don't know if she is or not. It's possible that she was and it's just not a detail that he included in the book. It's not necessarily an important detail. They cast Rooney Mara in that role and she's someone who's originally from New York. So, yeah, that change didn't necessarily bother me, it was just something I'm pointing out.
Speaker 1:But I was reading that Lisa in the film is not based on Lisa in the book. She's like a compilation of several girlfriends that he had throughout his journey, which I found kind of interesting because, like he did toy around with perhaps finding his journey for a few years before like fully committing and doing this journey, but Lisa is the one that was with him once he was fully committed to that journey. So I'm wondering why they didn't just make Lisa Lisa as opposed to like a compilation of several girlfriends. And in the film it's a friend of his that like again, he's having dinner with his friends and he kind of remembers, like he's mentioning to his friends I was lost, I'm not sure where I'm from, and his friend is the one that says well, why don't you try searching on Google Earth to see if you can find your family, and Saru himself is the one that decides to do this search. And one thing that I found interesting was that, again, this is one of those like, this is the emotional moment, the pivotal emotional moment that, like is going to trigger this journey. So I'm pretty sure that's why this change was made, because okay, so the opening scenes are Saru and Guru doing minor labor works in Kanwha.
Speaker 1:As they're preparing to go home, they see someone making jalopy. I think it's like a either like a dessert or like a type of candy Indian candy or dessert and he you know Saru wants it. And he says buy me some. And his brother says one day we will own our own factory or we'll make all the jalopy we want. And so when he's at this dinner party and he's, he's getting made fun by his Indian friends for not being Indian enough. They're like, oh, look at him eating Indian food with a fork and a knife and spoon, as opposed to using again Saru talking constantly in his book, saying that he never forgot the Indian side of him and when he had Indian friends, like he was able to, it was like he lived, like he grew up Indian his whole life, like that's how easily he was able to slip into that.
Speaker 1:But while he's at this dinner party he's completely forgotten, like in the film, like he's very much Australian and he's forgotten his past. And it isn't until he takes this bite of jalopy that all of a sudden, like all these memories of India come rushing back and he's like, oh my gosh, I've been lost this whole time. So, yeah, again I can understand why that change was made, but it's I don't know. I was just watching it, I was just like, okay, in the film he also has a kind of shaky relationship with his adopted brother, mantosh.
Speaker 1:So a few years after Saru was adopted, his mom and dad adopted another boy from India called Mantosh. And we do get a little glimpse of their which he does talk about in the book, which is that he and Mantosh were complete opposites, which is why he respects his parents so much, because you know he showed up. As I mentioned, his trauma is like withdrawing emotionally. So when he showed up, like he was very amenable and open to everything and anything that his parents suggested and he gave them no trouble. Mantosh was the complete opposite. He would rebel and like give his parents all the trouble that Saru never did, which makes a lot more sense because Mantosh also came with a lot more trauma than Saru did. His adoption took longer, so while the details of the adoption were getting figured out, he had to go back to the detention center, which Saru makes quite clear was an awful, awful place for any child to be in. He was also abused, and physically and sexually, which is something that Saru did not experience. So we do get glimpses of this when he's initially adopted, but this shaky relationship continues into adulthood in the film. He doesn't mention anything like that in the book.
Speaker 1:I'm not exactly sure why this change was made, especially because we never really get a resolution. Orlando, oh, my dear Orlando, I love him so much. But lion was one of the films where he kept asking question after question after question, like why did that happen? Why did this happen? And I know he's processing things. But again, as I've said before, it's like if you watch the film, if it's well done, everything will get resolved. It is a well done film, I will say that.
Speaker 1:But there is one thing that was brought up that never gets resolved in the film, and it is this relationship with Mantosh. Like Mantosh is? I don't even know. Saru is the golden child and Mantosh is not. While the mom is very like hopeful that he's going to show up to all these family gatherings, like Saru and his dad are like why do you keep waiting for him? Like he's not going to show up. And there there's like at one point he like starts hitting himself on the head during one of the dinners that he's having with his family because, like he says, you're not really my brother. Like that like triggers mantosh and he has like this mental breakdown.
Speaker 1:There's no indication that there's anything like that with mantosh. Like he makes it very clear that, despite the trouble that mantosh gave his parents as a child, like they were very firm but very loving and he has a great relationship with them now. And in fact, saru did go to university to get a degree in hospitality and it isn't until after he graduates that he realizes and has been away from his family, that he's like you know what this family means everything to me and I don't want to use my degree anymore. I would much rather go work with my dad, and so he, to this day, works at his dad's company and so does Mantosh. It's a Briarley and Sons company. Essentially, I don't think that's actually the name of it, but I'm just saying that's what it is. They both work there. So there's no indication at all that this relationship is as torrential as it is in the film.
Speaker 1:And so, to answer your question, orlando, he did ask me once the film was over. He was like I do have one question Did he ever repair his relationship with Mantosh? And here's the thing to my knowledge there was never anything to repair. So that's the answer to your question Orlando Mantosh with the help of his parents, and he's just fine. So there you go. So that's the answer to your question Orlando Mantosh with the help of his parents and he's just fine. So there you go. So that was something that bugged me, and I think the reason this change was made is because we see, like, the last image we see before we fast forward into the future is Mantosh's adoption and just how much he's lashing out and kind of violent towards his parents as they're trying to calm him down and things like that. And so I imagine to see that and then to fast forward in the future and he's fine might be a little jarring, but that is what happened in reality, but in the film as well.
Speaker 1:Again, lisa is apparently not lisa in the film but she is so saru. He's told his friends and he's told Lisa that he's going on this journey to find his family. And he doesn't tell his parents until he's successful in finding where he's from. And the reason he never told his parents is because he didn't want them to feel or think that they didn't do a good job or that they never felt the void in his heart, his like biological parents or anything like that, so he didn't want to hurt them. So that's why he keeps it more of a secret from them.
Speaker 1:In the film, lisa is like you should tell them and they're like tell us what? And he's like shut it, lisa, and like this actually causes a lot of tension in the relationship, they break up. He does say in the book that he and Lisa at the start of the relationship were perhaps not mature enough to be together and so they did break up a few times. But once they were together, like once, they matured a little bit and got back together for good, this time like it's been good and she respected that. Like his search for his family did not cause the tension that it causes in the film. Again, pretty sure this change was made for the film to keep that tension and that conflict going. You need a good conflict in any film to be engaging. May not seem like it, but there should always be a good conflict. So I'm pretty sure that's why that change was made. But in reality, like Lisa supported his decision, in the film he does get very like engulfed and super focused on finding his family that he can't think of anything else. And he does say in the book that lisa's the one that, like she, supported his decision to look for his family. But she did, you know, keep him grounded and saying, hey, maybe you should take a break, let's do something. And you know you can. You can resume your search once we've taken this break. So he does credit her with being incredibly supportive but also making sure it didn't become like his sole focus, like she kept him grounded.
Speaker 1:I guess you could say we do get a glimpse in the film of how Saru got a scar just above, like his eyebrow, and this is when in the book he finds his mom and people are kind of initially skeptical and they say how do you know that this is actually your son and not like some stranger pretending to be your son. She's like he has the scar and she looks for the scar and she finds the scar. That proves to her that that's her son. So in reality, the way Saru got this scar is that there's a lot of wild or loose dogs in India and to this day he doesn't like dogs. He's kind of scared of them because as a child he was being chased by a really aggressive dog and as he was trying to avoid this dog, he ended up running into a pole and that's what caused the scar.
Speaker 1:In the film, he gets this scar after being hit by a bike, which it looked very like. Oh my gosh, I feel like that would have killed him if that happened in real life. Like the way he was hit, obviously, like I know he's okay, but I was just like how did he survive that? Like damn, like he's crossing the street holding a watermelon and then this bike just comes in and it's like not, it's like a motorbike, not a motorcycle, but it's like a motorbike. So it comes at him pretty fast and he survives that and I was like I, that's an interesting choice. I don't know how he survived that, but he did apparently. I mean, obviously he did, but that's not how he got the scar, but his actual scar.
Speaker 1:In the film and the book he does, kind of by a chance encounter, come across Kandwa, and in the film we keep getting glimpses of him like in a field with his mom, and it's like a dream that he keeps having where he's like in these fields while his mom is working. And in the film that's how he discovers where he's from. He recognizes the fields and so he does come across where he's from by chance in the book as well. Like I said, his search is taking a really, really long time because he was looking in the wrong area and so he kind of just stumbled across it and was like, wow, I found it. And he actually found Burhanpur first, and then from there he kind of goes until he finds Kandwa. But again he knows he's from a place called Guinness Lake. And so when he sees Kandwa and starts recognizing some of the landmarks there, he's like, well, I don't know if this is the right place, like I know, I'm like I recognize this, but this doesn't sound anything like Guinness Lake.
Speaker 1:And so he actually finds a Facebook group for Kandwa and he joins the group and he says is this like? He starts talking about some of the landmarks and he's like is this landmark still there? And people say, well, this landmark used to be there, or or it is still there but it's not across what you're describing, what you're describing no longer exists or whatever. And so finally he becomes increasingly excited and he's sure that he's found the place where he's from. But he's like why did I say Guinnessley? And so finally he like asks in the group. He's like was there like a little suburb like to the north of Candwa that I could possibly be from? And it sounds kind of like this. And someone says do you mean Ganesh Talai, guinness Talai? I know I'm butchering that again, I'm sorry. And so that's when he knows for sure that he has found his hometown.
Speaker 1:So I will say I guess visually it might be easier for us to recognize these fields, but I feel like he recognizes the train station at Burrenpoor and he recognizes Candwa and Ginnishtalai from landmarks like physical, and I feel like that would be a lot easier to remember as a kid or as an adult, like the landmarks you see as a kid are probably more visual and easier to remember than like a bunch of fields, because there's a lot of fields that could look like that. Fields look the same, you know. So anyway, yes, and then the last thing I want to talk about is that there is a character called Swarmina In the film. She works at ESA and is actually the one that takes Saru to Australia, like she's the one that travels with the kids that are getting adopted. In reality, swarmina is a friend that he made back in India, who knows how to speak English and Hindi and serves as a translator between Saru and his mom. So Swarmina does exist, but she's just a little bit different. Bless you, voldemort. So I think he does have like a form of friendship with her. So I feel like they kept her, or he kept her, in the film in some form, but in reality she's just a friend that he made in India once he's reunited with his family. But anyway, that is Lion versus A Long Way Home. I did enjoy both of them. I'm so glad I crossed them off my list finally.
Speaker 1:But, but I will say, watching the film, I was very annoyed by, like, like, some of the changes they made, cause I was just like, what is the point of this? And like, even logistically, the ones I knew why they made that change. I was like but did you have to change it in that way? Could there not have been? I don't know. So I still really really liked the film, but those changes did annoy me.
Speaker 1:So I do want to say that sunny pawar he's so cute. He plays five-year-old saru. He's absolutely adorable. He did a great job. So I was reading. So they auditioned a lot of little kids and they were so. Usually when you're casting children like you want children that are a little bit older because it's easier for them to act like have the different emotional range and like they're a little bit older but they can play the appropriate age. But the director really, really wanted to cast a little boy who was that age and so it took them a while to find one. They auditioned thousands and thousands of kids before they found Sunny Pilar and they went with the right choice. Like he was great. He was fantastic.
Speaker 1:And, of course, dev Patel. I love Dev Patel. He's one of my celebrity husbands. I love him so much, I have such a crush on him. But I also think he's just like a great actor, so definitely worth watching for his performance. We have like a good cast here. We have Nicole Kidman, we have Rooney Mara, but Sunny Pawar and Dev Patel are definitely the ones that carry the film. Like the other characters don't get as much screen time as them, so they're good, but I don't feel like their performances stood out to me as much as Dev's and Sunny.
Speaker 1:And I knew that Dev Patel had been nominated for an Oscar for this, but I guess I didn't. Patel had been nominated for an Oscar for this, but I guess I didn't realize that he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor, even though he has top billing, which I'm just like what. The reason he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor is because he doesn't appear until 53 minutes into the movie, so he only appears for the last half of the film as opposed to the first half. But Nicole Kidman got nominated for this as well as Best Supporting Actress, and she had maybe just a tiny bit more screen time than that. But I don't know. He should have been nominated for Lead Actor instead of Supporting Actor, but whatever. But yeah, this is actually nominated for quite a few awards. It didn't win any. It was nominated for Best Motion Picture.
Speaker 1:I think it's well-deserved. It is a great film. Dev Patel is Best Supporting Actor, nicole Kidman, best Supporting Actress Luke Davies for Adapted Screenplay, which I know that's kind of questionable I'm sure it's not, but I have my issues Best Achievement in Cinematography, which it was shot very, very well and it also for best for best original score. So, yeah, definitely worth watching, especially, like I said, for those performances of the boy and man playing Saru. They were great. The winner is I do have to give it to the book. I feel like if I had seen the film first it could have possibly ended in a tie, because the film is fantastic, but just those changes just really bugged me. So I rated the book four stars and I did rate the film four stars as well. So they are both worth checking out. But yes, I have to give it to the book in this case. But, like I said, check them both out because they're both great. That's it for this episode of books versus movies.
Speaker 1:Something I did want to add really resonated with me is that Sue and John. They made the decision to adopt children. They kind of felt that they had so many privileges and they felt like there were so many humans already on the planet and they felt like bringing another human into the world wasn't going to do anything for the state of the world. But they felt that if they could adopt they knew that they would it might not make a world of difference, but it would make a difference to at least that child. And so, unlike a lot of people, they didn't care the gender, they didn't care the age of the child, they said we will take whatever, which is why they were approved so quickly, because they weren't picky about what child they got and that applied when they adopted Mantosh as well and they knew that one or both of the children they adopted might potentially come with a lot of health issues or traumatic issues that they might have to deal with and overcome, and it actually took them a while to adopt. So they realized fairly early on in their marriage that they wanted to adopt.
Speaker 1:But there was a law in Australia that prevented fertile couples from adopting, which I'm just like excuse you, if someone wants to adopt instead of a have a biological child, that's none of your business. So they had to wait until this law was no longer in existence before they could adopt. And once that law was like gone, they were approved again really, really fast. And but anyway, that just really spoke to me, because I kind of feel the same way. I've always said that I don't want biological children. I am open to adoption and I feel like if I ever have a family, that's how it's gonna happen. I will say the Briarleaves are probably better people than me, because I would definitely want to adopt a baby, just because I don't know that I have the capacity to handle a child that's coming in with you know, something like traumas and things that I don't know how to handle. But yeah, just, I really wanted to share that. That's how John and Sue barely ended up on their journey to adoption and I respect that because I feel the same way.
Speaker 1:But anyway, that is it for this episode of Books vs Movies. Thank you so much for tuning in. This podcast is a labor of love for me and I absolutely enjoy doing it. I do everything from recording, editing, putting it out, and it would mean so much to me if you could share, spread the word about this podcast with your friends. Please leave a rating, a review, and let your friends know that this podcast exists so that we can continue growing this books versus movies family. Thank you so much, and I don't know what I'll be reviewing next time, so it'll be a surprise. See you next time. Bye.