Lion Page #22

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EXT. DAM, KHANDWA - LATE AFTERNOON

The warm late sun floods the air as we come upon adult Saroo

walking along the water’s edge by the dam, where a new

generation of KIDS are splashing and playing - just as Saroo

used to do, twenty-five years ago.

The dam wall over there. Out in the water: two BOYS

frolicking, shrieking.

Saroo, watching them.

SAROO (V.O., CONT’D, FROM PREVIOUS)

... I just want to say that I’m

safe. I’m safe, and all questions

have been answered. There are no

more dead ends. (MORE ...)

108

INT. JOHN AND SUE’S BEDROOM - EARLY MORNING

Sue, sitting up in bed - holding her mobile, listening to the

message on speakerphone, John beside her listening too - as

tears well in their eyes.

SAROO’S VOICE ON SPEAKERPHONE

My mother thanks you both for

raising me. She understands you’re

my family. She’s happy just knowing

I’m alive.

(long beat)

I found Ammi. But that doesn’t

change us. I love you, Mum. So

much. And you, Dad. And Mantosh.

We’re a family.

EXT. DAM, KHANDWA - LATE AFTERNOON

Saroo stands there by the dam. Taking it all in.

He turns. Up ahead: that ridge where the railway track runs.

Saroo starts walking up the embankment to the track.

EXT. RAILWAY TRACKS, NEAR DAM - MOMENTS LATER

Saroo is walking TOWARDS US along the tracks. Stepping on

every second sleeper. The dam over there, B/G.

REVERSE:
MATCH SHOT so it feels like a normal reverse, BUT -

ON THE REVERSE:
it’s twelve-year-old Guddu and five-year-old

Saroo, walking AWAY FROM US down that long stretch of track.

Guddu’s arm draped over Saroo’s shoulder. Saroo dragging a

stick behind him, clack-clack-clack along the sleepers.

They’re literally walking off into the sunset. And we

CUT TO AERIAL:

HIGH AERIAL - KHANDWA AND BEYOND - CONTINUOUS

- We’re RISING UP into the air - we’re leaving them now -

we’re going HIGH - HIGHER - we’re SOARING UP AND AWAY We’re

very HIGH - they’re TINY SPECKS - we’re

FADING TO BLACK.

In the blackness, SUPERS come up, one after the other:

Saroo Brierley made it back to Ganesh Talai on February 12,

2012. He’d been lost for over 25 years.

109

He learned that 25 years earlier, on the same night he

stepped up into that carriage, his brother Guddu died - hit

by a train not far from the platform.

Saroo’s mother, Kamla, had never given up hope of Saroo’s

return, and had never moved away.

She said she was “surprised with thunder” that her boy had

come back, and that the happiness in her heart was “as deep

as the ocean.”

Saroo learned that all those years ago, as a five-year-old,

he had been mispronouncing his own name.

He was “Sheru” -

-“LION”

AND SLAM INTO:

-that police station PHOTO of 5-year-old Saroo - the REAL

PHOTO, not our actor -

We PUSH slowly, slowly CLOSER AND CLOSER into the photo -

-into those huge, determined eyes.

CUT TO BLACK.

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