Lion Page #11

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GUDDU:

One day, I’m going to buy you one!

SAROO:

(playful, cheeky)

One day, let’s buy the whole vat!

Guddu laughs at this ... but both boys steal another glance,

salivating at this sizzling utopia.

INT. INDIAN SHARED FLAT, KITCHEN - CONTINUOUS

Staring intensely at the orange spiral sweets, Saroo slowly

reaches his hand forward - reaches back in time - towards

this unattainable thing he never got to taste.

He picks one up, studies it. As if it’s some mystical

communion wafer.

He puts it to his mouth. Bites into it. The significance of

the moment hits him hard - he is eating for Guddu too.

Just then Lucy enters. Something not right here...

SAROO:

(barely a whisper)

... jalebis ...

Lucy looks concerned.

LUCY:

Saroo?

We are TIGHT on the two.

SAROO:

(like a confession)

I’m not from Kolkata.

She moves closer. Gentle. Careful.

SAROO (CONT’D)

I’m lost.

They notice Bharat has entered.

INT. INDIAN SHARED FLAT, LIVING ROOM - LATER SAME NIGHT

The mood is completely different. Respectful and intrigued.

PRAMA:

You must have been freaking. Howrah

Station’s enormous! I went through

on pilgrimage to Puri - I missed my

connection twice.

LUCY:

And you couldn’t speak Bengali?

SAROO:

I didn’t even know it was called

that.

BHARAT:

How long were you on the train?

SAROO:

A couple of days.

Some squabbling and cross-referencing in Hindi - and through

it, as they throw in their two cents worth, some MOMENTS in

Saroo’s eyes. The long-forgotten music of the language.

BHARAT:

What was your home town again?

SAROO:

“Ganestlay”. But I must have had it

wrong, it doesn’t exist.

BHARAT:

You must remember something about

it.

SAROO:

The platform I fell asleep on had a

big rain tank.

SAMI:

There are thousands of stations...

Saroo has never spoken about this before. He’s starting to

tense up. Lucy is aware of his discomfort.

SAROO:

Yeah. Look, that’s all in the past.

BHARAT:

No, no. We find out how fast

passenger trains went back then. We

take the speed and multiply it by

the hours you were on the train,

and create a search radius.

PRAMA:

Totally. And have you heard of this

new program, Google Earth? It’s

incredible - you can see anywhere

in the world.

SAMI:

It would take three lifetimes to

search all the stations in India.

BHARAT:

Not all the stations -

SAMI:

Okay, half the stations.

Saroo, squirming with all this focus on his past.

SAROO:

Really guys, it was a long time

ago.

SAMI:

Do you think your parents tried to

find you?

PRAMA:

Of course they did!

SAMI:

No, I just mean, if his family

looked for him, maybe they left,

like, a paper trail.

BHARAT:

He doesn’t even know his surname.

SAROO:

And my mum couldn’t read or write.

A small silence. Lucy moves closer to Saroo. They share a

smile.

SAMI:

What did she do?

SAROO:

(more to Lucy)

She was like - a labourer.

It doesn’t exactly compute - for these modernized Indian kids

with money to study abroad.

SAMI:

Your mum?

Sami’s naivety has crossed a line. Saroo fights back.

SAROO:

(blunt; as if Sami is the

thick one)

Yeah. She carried rocks.

Bharat glares at Sami - shut up.

BHARAT:

That’s cool.

PRAMA:

(weakly)

Yeah. Cool.

EXT. MELBOURNE STREET - LATER, SAME NIGHT

Saroo and Lucy walk in the streets. Silence.

LUCY:

My mom died four years ago. Cancer.

SAROO:

I’m sorry.

She glances at him. He’s sincere, not just being polite. She

opens up further

LUCY:

My dad still blames her. Not for

getting sick, obviously. For

refusing chemo.

SAROO:

Wow.

LUCY:

She knew herself. She knew her

terms. How she wanted to live.

(beat - morbid humour:)

Dad’s attitude was, there’s only so

much a juice cleanse can do.

Saroo smiles at it.

SAROO:

And what was your attitude?

A pause, as Lucy considers the question, and comes up finally

with the only possible answer - here in the present:

LUCY:

I miss her.

You can see in her eyes how deeply this is true. Then she

glances up at him, changes direction, deflects it:

LUCY (CONT’D)

You miss yours?

But Saroo himself has about eleven force-fields around him.

SAROO:

I guess.

LUCY:

What about your dad?

SAROO:

He walked out on us. Took another

wife.

Lucy shakes her head - crazy world.

LUCY:

Any brothers or sisters?

SAROO:

Two brothers and a sister. It was a

long time ago. All a bit vague.

He casually shrugs it away, as if the length of time is

sufficient explanation for the vagueness. And then:

SAROO (CONT’D)

But there’s Mantosh. In Tassie.

He’s adopted too.

They walk.

LUCY (CONT’D)

So what do you think of Bharat’s

search radius idea?

SAROO:

I don’t know.

LUCY:

(ironic enthusiasm)

I think it sounds promising.

Saroo nods, but it’s noncommittal, a little distant.

LUCY (CONT’D)

You all right?

Saroo looks vulnerable; then suddenly he grins, and head-

bobbles to her - Indian Style.

LUCY (CONT’D)

Oh my god. You are so wrong!

And suddenly, shaking himself out of the past - playing to

Lucy - flirting with her - Saroo pulls a few dance moves,

mock-Bollywood style.

Lucy laughs, embarrassed but impressed. And even though it’s

momentarily playful, they both know that something deep has

connected them.

INT. SAROO’S STUDENT APARTMENT -LATER, SAME NIGHT

Saroo, alone in the dark - despite the spark with Lucy, still

rattled by whatever it is the jalebis have opened up in him.

EXT. INDIAN DREAM QUARRY (FLASHBACK)

We’re in that mythic, prehistoric, dust-shrouded landscape.

WORKERS all around load rocks into old wooden hods.

Saroo is running across the rubble, white with dust himself.

Everything heightened and surreal.

SAROO:

Ammi! Ammi! [Mummy! Mummy!]

Kamla comes into focus, as she stands, and turns.

But before we get to her, we

HARD CUT BACK INTO:

INT. SAROO’S STUDENT APARTMENT - CONTINUOUS (NIGHT)

We can just make out Saroo’s face, as he sits in the dark.

SAROO:

(whispers)

Ammi ... Ammi ...

The pain of memory. A sudden intense expulsion of breath.

INT. LIVE MUSIC GIG - NIGHT

A wall of music. The BAND, sweating, pulsing, lost in the

frenzy of instruments. A CROWD of dancing people.

Saroo and Lucy, sweaty, tranced, deep ... their eyes locked -

a different kind of connection - visceral - almost alarming.

They ride the music.

Now a change of mood - the music shifts - haunting.

Saroo and Lucy hold each other up, enjoying the public

intimacy.

Their eyes meet - they hesitate -

- this is real, the connection between them -

- to surrender or not, that’s the question

-they go for it.

Hand to hand, forehead to forehead -

-again, a mirror - physically connected this time.

A transformative moment -

their senses, so alive -

-so close, blurring into one.

INT. SAROO’S STUDENT APARTMENT - NIGHT

E/C/U:
Saroo runs his finger slowly along the lines on Lucy’s

marble white arm and palm.

WIDER:
We’re in a tender post-coital darkness.

Lucy drifting into sleep.

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