Lion Page #4

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From the urchin’s POV: Saroo, trapped behind the dirty pane.

SAROO:

Help me!

The urchin stares blankly at Saroo. In his own desolation, he

can’t find the energy to even engage, let alone help.

SAROO (CONT’D)

Please! Help me!

But the train begins to pull out. Gathering speed.

The urchin turns his head, and gazes at Saroo, receding.

INT. CARRIAGE - CONTINUOUS (AFTERNOON)

As the train continues to gather speed we see, over Saroo’s

shoulder, all the people on the crowded platform flashing by.

SAROO:

(flailing, screaming)

Help! Help!

But not a soul notices him - and then the station is gone.

HIGH AERIAL - AFTERNOON

The train continues across the vast landscape, whose colors

have shifted now - less ochre, more verdant.

INT. CARRIAGE - LATER (LATE AFTERNOON)

Saroo, just sitting. Weeping forlorn, hopeless tears.

INT. CARRIAGE - LATER (NIGHT)

NIGHT. Saroo on all fours under the seats again, scavenging.

He lunges for a peach stone. Well and truly eaten. He gnaws

and sucks on it ravenously, getting at the last strands.

INT. CARRIAGE, SLOWING INTO CALCUTTA - LATER (NIGHT)

Saroo watches out the window a dark, unfamiliar CITY

streaming past. A vast SHANTY TOWN at night. And such NOISE!

The train begins to slow, noticeably. Saroo, pressed to the

window, wide-eyed. Scared. But desperate to get off!

INT. CARRIAGE, ARRIVING AT HOWRAH STATION - LATER (NIGHT)

As the train lurches to a stop, Saroo is poised at the door,

tensed, wary, alert. PEOPLE crowd the door.

To Saroo, they seem frightening, ugly: a Boschean nightmare

of faces, all crowding at the door.

How’s this going to work? His hand tight on the handle.

AUDIO:
a HYDRAULIC AIR RELEASE SOUND, and the door unlocks.

It slides OPEN, and instantly the CROWDS are PILING IN.

Saroo, caught off-guard, pushes forward. THROWS himself into

the crowd, like a stage diver. No way he isn’t getting off.

EXT. HOWRAH PLATFORM - CONTINUOUS (NIGHT)

The HORDES push on board as tiny Saroo fights his way out.

Desperate. Lunging. Swimming his way through them.

He pops clear. Free. But then, before him: the chaos of

Howrah, Calcutta’s main terminus - 26 platforms. WIDE, the

place is indescribably vast. The size of a small town.

He turns in a circle - every direction equally hopeless.

He steps up to a WOMAN.

SAROO:

Ganestlay?

WOMAN:

(waving him off)

I have no money.

To a MAN IN RAILWAY UNIFORM walking by:

SAROO:

Ganestlay?

But the man keeps walking.

Saroo sees ANOTHER OFFICIAL. He tugs on the man’s trousers.

But the man just BATS Saroo away - a real clip on the ears.

Turning in a bewildered circle, Saroo spots a STREET KID (5)

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