Heartwarming film - Lion (based on a true story)
If anyone wants to see a heart-warming story (somewhat harrowing in parts because it features the awful conditions and lives endured by street children in India) then go to see Lion which is based on a true story. A five year old boy in India lost his brother, got on a train, arrived in Calcutta 1600 kilometres from home, where he didn't even speak the local Bengali language, didn't know the real name of his own village, (nor, as it turns out, his own real name) and lived as a street child for a couple of months. Eventually he was picked up by a more sympathetic agency who arranged for him to be adopted by a couple in Tasmania. The story is basically of his happy and successful life in Tasmania, his search to find his real home, and to find the mother he knew would never have stopped searching for him.
He used modern technology in the form of google earth to search the railway network for a water tower he recognised, and eventually found it, his nearby neighbourhood, and eventually his own home from a satellite view. He was reunited with his mother in 2014. He is very well played by Dev Patel, his adoptive mother by Nicole Kidman, the child Saroo by Sunny Patel (who is wonderful) and the emotional ending of the film shows the real Saroo (Sheru meaning Lion) reunited with his mother and hugging his mother, his adoptive mother, and his sister.
We've seen it today at our local film society - and it was very well attended. Go to see it if it's near you.