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By turns harrowing and heartwarming, the true-life drama "Lion" is a solidly told story of persistence and the pull of family across land and oceans.

Saroo is introduced to the audience as a plucky, curious 5-year-old boy, played by newcomer Sunny Pawar. He lives in Khandwa Village, deep in the heart of India, in 1986, with his mother, Kamla (Priyanka Bose), baby sister and older brother, Guddu (Abhishek Bharate). Saroo is small, but he's smart, always helping Guddu bring in a little money to sustain their poor family.

One day, Saroo tags along with Guddu on a job and ends up alone on a train platform. He gets on what he thinks is the right train home, falls asleep and ends up a thousand miles from Khandwa in Kolkata. Saroo tries to get help, but no one understands him. (He speaks Hindi, the people in Kolkata speak Bengali.) After living on the street and dodging threats from several quarters, he lands in an orphanage.

After some time, Saroo is adopted by an Australian couple, Sue and John Brierley (played by Nicole Kidman and David Wenham). He is given all the comforts of life in Tasmania, but not all is idyllic — especially when the Brierleys adopt another Indian boy, Mantosh (Keshav Jadhav), who has severe mental disabilities.

The story flashes forward 25 years, when Saroo (now played by Dev Patel, from "Best Exotic Marigold Hotel") is a college student majoring in restaurant management, close to his adoptive parents but estranged from Mantosh (played as an adult by Divian Ladwa). It's when Saroo is hanging out with fellow students, some of them from India, that he decides there's a hole in his life — the part missing when he was taken from India.

With a supportive girlfriend (played by Rooney Mara, in an underdeveloped role that feels like a generic composite romantic interest) and Google Earth, Saroo starts a methodical search to find a train station that matches his childhood memory.

Australian director Garth Davis (who helmed some the acclaimed miniseries "Top of the Lake") and screenwriter Luke Davies make from Saroo Brierley's memoir a touching story about the bonds of family — biological and otherwise. Much of Saroo's emotional struggle in the movie's second half centers on his concerns for the troubled Mantosh and for whether Sue and John will feel slighted knowing he is searching for his birth family.

Where "Lion" gets its power, though, is in the first half and the stunning performance by Pawar. It's always difficult to know how much of a young child's performance is talent and how much is manipulation by the grown-ups on the set or in the editing bay, but Pawar's plucky spirit becomes the engine that makes "Lion" roar.

Twitter: @moviecricket —

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'Lion'

A little boy is separated from his home in India, and 25 years later tries to get back, in this well-told drama.

Where • Area theaters.

When • Opens Sunday, Dec. 25.

Rating • PG-13 for thematic material and some sensuality.

Running time • 118 minutes.