The Man Who Knew Infinity review
The Man Who Knew Infinity review: A misunderstood mind
Like most geniuses, Srinivasa
Ramanujan is a difficult man to understand. And sometimes it is better
that a movie doesn’t strain itself in trying to make sense of
everything.
Ramanujan was a degree-less self-taught
math wiz; he failed in other subjects because he was only interested in
maths. He was also a pious Brahmin and a staunch believer in god. He
would get complex, world-changing mathematical equations in his fever
dreams and credit god for them. On top of that, we have British
mathematician GH Hardy (Jeremy Irons), his mentor and collaborator at
Cambridge University and the man instrumental in getting Ramanujan’s
work out in the world, who is an atheist vocal about his beliefs or lack
of it.
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It sounds like fertile ground for a dramatic
ideological battle. The film has elements of an underdog story: it is
about a brown geek with a funny name from colonial India, who mostly
irks as well as fascinates the folks at Cambridge. But
The Man Who Knew Infinity
is not about high-strung drama. It is decent, staid and cold like the
interiors of Cambridge on a rainy day; perhaps too staid for its own
good.
Dev Patel doesn’t bring much to the table as
Ramanujan, as we try to keep looking for something beyond his
perpetually troubled expression. He is a man who is frustrated by
poverty, away from his wife and mother at home; a Brahmin isn’t allowed
to cross the oceans, he iterates. He is a man who is not only aware of
his genius but is also arrogant about it. He is also prone to frequent
illnesses.
After he lands in England, the Indian
mathematician is diagnosed with TB. He recovered partially but died
because of it a year later. We register these facts and traits of this
personality but their impact is less effective than a Wikipedia page. An
important part of the film is Hardy’s relation with Ramanujan, but it
has few emotional beats going for it.
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Apparently a
lot of work was put into getting the math right. The film roped in top
mathematicians such as Ken Ono and Manjul Bhargava to ensure that and it
took the film about 10 years to make. To its credit, the film makes
complex mathematics fairly accessible, even to a non-math person. But
what’s the point if one fails to engage with the man behind the math?
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.
The Man Who Knew Infinity
Director:
Matt Brown
Cast:
Jeremy Irons, Dev Patel, Toby Jones, Devika Bhise, Arundathi Nag
Genre:
Biopic
Runtime:
1 hour 48 min
The Man Who Knew Infinity review
Reviewed by Unknown
on
15:51:00
Rating:
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