The Man Who Knew Infinity (2016) Review!!!

Synopsis – Growing up poor in Madras, India, Srinivasa Ramanujan Iyengar earns admittance to Cambridge University during WWI, where he becomes a pioneer in mathematical theories with the guidance of his professor, G.H. Hardy.

My Take – From the time movies have been made, biopics based on a genius of his/her certain field have almost always managed to sway the audience into appreciating them. But when one imagines the most exciting topics for movies, mathematics tends to fall pretty far down the list. Well in my opinion, most students only take mathematics classes because they have no choice, so why should anyone be interested in the story of a young Indian man who revolutionized the mathematics world at Trinity College in Cambridge in the early 20th century? Simple, because this movie is the very definition of the kind of movie people complain that “they” don’t make anymore: a modestly budgeted, character-driven drama for adults that doesn’t insult the viewer’s intelligence or lean on shock value. I know the choice of watching a ‘mathematics biopic’ as the summer blockbuster season is just round the corner may seem like an odd choice, but honestly this film is less about number and more about having faith, believing in ones passion while overcoming life’s obstacles, which is always a good thing. The film serves as a biopic to Srinivasa Ramanujan, a self-taught Indian Mathematician, who some say could decipher the very fabric of existence. It’s a poignant film in as much as an emotional roller coaster but an extraordinary story told almost a century after Ramanujan‘s early and tragic death in 1920. Like many others before and after him, not many could fathom his genius as Ramanujan could mentally compute complex permutations in a fraction of a second at the height of his powers.

Not even the Cambridge scholars who elected him as a Fellow of the Royal Society and also a Fellow of Trinity College – monumental achievements for an Indian with no formal training in mathematics. Based on this true story and adapted from a 1991 book of the same name, the story follows Ramanujan (Dev Patel), a poor Brahmin in 1914 Madras. Despite his intellect not being a college graduate causes him hindrance to find a steady job until he gets hired by Narayana Iyer (Dhritiman Chatterjee) to work for Sir Francis Spring (Stephen Fry). On observing the genius Ramanujan is, Sir Francis Spring sends samples of his work to intellectuals in Cambridge. Within an instant of receiving the latter’s theories, Cambridge academic G. H. Hardy (Jeremy Irons) is not only astounded, but invites Ramanujan to publish his works in England, and work as his protege. Forced to leave behind his young wife (Devika Bhise) with his mother (Arundhathi Nag), this would be the start of many of his problems but not before going on to make profound discoveries in his field of study. The film is a pleasant surprise! Close on the heels of The Theory of Everything and The Imitation Game, 2014’s Academy Award front runners, Brown‘s screenplay fits the bill as a rousing film with a lot of heart. The premise seems to promise racism and emotional uplift, as well as scenes of men in tweed suits excitedly scribbling on blackboards and crying out, “I’ve got it!” Well, the tweed suit part is true. Matt Brown‘s film still raises some crucial questions: the word racism springs to mind at once now – but what of the historical perspective, 33 years before Indian independence and in a closed English community? For all their brilliance, could those academics have had any conception of racism as we understand it? The rest, thank goodness, is not cliched: While Ramanujan does experience racism when he moves to England—at one point being badly beaten by a group of soldiers—he also meets sympathetic Englishmen and other Indian students. There are scenes of men writing on chalkboards, but the big breakthrough happens off screen and is revealed in the form of a stack of paper placed on Hardy’s desk, which due to his poverty level was considered a luxury in India. There’s even a well-placed one-liner here and there. The film is similarly subtle in its depiction of Indian culture, incorporating specific details into the story without feeling the need to over-explain everything. The dynamics of the fascinating Hardy-Ramanujan collaboration survive the screenplay’s insistence on simplicity. Director Matt Brown does a better job of capturing the atmosphere at Cambridge than the intricacies of Indian family life. The intellectual jousting between Hardy and fellow scholars John Edensor Littlewood (Toby Jones) and Bertrand Russell (Jeremy Northam) is more sincere and amusing than Ramanujan’s theatrical wringing of hands and coughing up of blood. However, there is a real downside to all this even-handedness, and it’s that—especially towards the beginning of the film, before the life-and-death stakes are introduced—the conflict can seem slight.

That’s when the main character’s confidence can come off as cocky, and his refusal to bend to Hardy’s (reasonable) insistence on proving his theories more like a temper tantrum than a fit of genius. It downplays the tension in the romantic subplot as well, reducing Janaki’s emotional struggle to a footnote. False drama abounds in a movie whose subject matter would confound even PhD students. Ramanujan’s unconvincing relationship with his wife Janaki (Devika Bhise) is given far too much importance, and the conflicts that arise from the machinations of his well-meaning but domineering mother Komalattamal (Arundhathi Nag) are reduced to soap opera moments. Plus, the mathematics equations show here are too abstract for the average viewer to appreciate the ground breaking nature of S. Ramanujan’s work. Consider the fact that almost a century after his death, intellectuals using modern day computers are still baffled by Ramanujan’s integrals and integers. And only as recent as 2012 have scientists confirmed Ramanujan’s incredible intuition that suggests the existence of black holes in deep space – a concept that was virtually unknown during his time. The best thing about the movie is that it brings to the modern audience an awareness of the genius of Ramanujan – who was apparently every bit Einstein’s equal or better, but remains basically unknown outside of maths academia. To its merit, the film builds on the relationship between Hardy and Ramanujan, both extreme opposites in their beliefs but recluses who find solace and then inspiration in each other. Hardy was a bit of an outcast at the university, while Ramanujan struggled to provide for his new wife, and had little patience for those who doubted his work. Their symbiotic chemistry builds towards a tearjerker of an ending while adding warmth and closure. Even though strong support work is provided by Toby Jones (as Littlewood), debutant Devika Bhise, Stephen Fry, and Jeremy Northram (as Bertrand Russell), it’s Patel and Irons who carry the weight here. It’s especially rewarding to see Irons as a co-lead again. His character was really well developed and I felt comfort and almost sanctuary whenever he was on screen. Dev Patel as the lead was pretty solid and kept the film moving along nicely. Also, his screen-partnership with Irons is great to watch and it is well developed especially when both of their characters have polarizing beliefs and speak the same language in the form of mathematics. There have been other popular math movies like A Beautiful Mind, Good Will Hunting, and Proof, but it’s The Theory of Everything that seems to have the most in common with the story of Ramanujan and Hardy. On the whole, ‘The Man Who Knew Infinity’ is an emotionally powerful crowd pleasing biopic though I wish it was as compelling as the real life story of the genius it celebrates.