Saroo Brierley pulled up to the train station and stepped out of his car into the chaotic landscape that had haunted his dreams.

The swerving bicycles, noisy three-wheelers and vendors' pushcarts crowding the streets of this Indian town were half a world from where he lived in Australia's tranquil island state of Tasmania. And yet he knew that once — a lifetime ago — he had called this place home.

It was Feb. 12, 2012, and he hadn't been here in nearly 25 years, since that nightmarish day when his brother vanished and a train whisked him away from everything he knew. Since he had ended up an orphan in distant Calcutta, before an Australian couple adopted him and gave him a second chance at family.

It took years of searching the Internet before he finally found his way back to this town. After all this time, would his family still be here? If they were, what would they say? What would he say?