The Man Who Knew Infinity (2016)

Overrated

one of my absolute favorites!

An Exercise In Nonsense

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Srinivasa Ramanujan was the second Indian to become a Fellow of Britain's Royal Society. He was a child prodigy in a mathematics, and a prodigy and total genius in that field in general (possibly the greatest intuitive thinker in maths there ever was) , and he spent five years at Trinity College, Cambridge - the one that has more Nobel Prizes than France, the one where (the also relatively humble-backgrounded) Newton was a predecessor of Ramanujan's. This is an amazing story in and of itself, and of course it needs telling, but it has to be owned that the Ramanujan character - as played by "Slumdog" veteran Dev Patel - is not truly the star of this show, with that honour rather falling to Jeremy Irons, in the very rewarding role of Godfrey Hardy. Nevertheless, the interactions between the young Indian and the getting-on-a-bit Don are fascinating and authentic-looking and not stagey at all (ever a risk with biopics). The only slight problem is in respect of the ages (as the pair were only really separated by a 10-year age gap). Ramanujan is religious and feels his maths is a gift from the gods and doesn't feel the need to understand how his equations work, or how he gets to them, while Hardy - who can just about grasp his student's simpler work on a good day - is nevertheless a demander of proofs, of genuine academic working, and of the Cambridge Way. So Ramanujan cannot be recognised as a scientist unless he works to be one. This is a core of the film, and the formula repeats several times before progress finally begins to be depicted, albeit coinciding with a further deterioration in the Indian's already shaky state of health. The story is thus a winner (even if its mathematical content has no hope of getting through to any of the film's viewers), and all the more so as it plays out against the background of the start of the First World War. However, the joy here is in the nuanced performance of Irons and the lines he gets to deliver. A third member of the setup is the character of John Littlewood - very appealingly portrayed by Toby Jones. Jeremy Northam also does his usual sympathetic work as famous philosopher Bertrand Russell. The Director here is American Matthew Brown, who does remarkably well at feeling the Cambridge - and British - atmosphere. And while he pulls no punches in his portrayal of the shameful and un-Christian racism and bigotry and stereotypical thinking levelled against Ramanujan by many, he cannot help but make it clear that many Brits were supportive of the young genius from the outset, not least Hardy, Littlewood and Russell (as well as Micaiah Hill), while others - like Major Percy McMahon played here by the ever-effective Kevin McNally - were won over to his cause. Likewise, in India, the young talent did indeed receive backing from Anglo-Irish engineer Sir Francis Spring (here played by Stephen Fry). Prior to that, during his education at schools in India, Ramanujan had had access to pioneering textbooks written by leading mathematicians from Britain, while his abilities had been noted and fostered by Indian-based British mathematicians like Edgar Middlemast and Eric Neville. These days it is fashionable to suggest all empires were equally evil, and indeed that they were nothing but evil, and staffed solely by ruthless exploiters. Whether it wishes to or not "The Man Who Knew Infinity" - in telling a compelling true story with reasonable faithfulness - supplies a nuanced view on that...

The story of a man who believed in something in which no one did at first place, The movie tells about his journey on how he made everyone believe in what he believed, A must watch movie for every researchers, academicians & Scholars!!

The movie is about a Cambridge Mathematics Scholar G.H. Hardy's experience with the genius of S. Ramanujan, a self taught Indian Mathematician, who without any formal training went on to unravel complex theories of mathematics. The viewers get a glimpse of Ramanujan's background in colonial India where living in abject poverty, he is absolved in deriving answers to complex mathematical questions. In his town, he finds no one to understand his work and to earn a living starts working as an accounting clerk. As a stoke of luck, he gets guided to write a letter to a Cambridge scholar G.H. Hardy with his discoveries and G.H. Hardy gets responded back. Thus starts the story of a partnership between Hardy and Ramanujan, where Hardy puts trust in Ramanujan and arranges for his travel and stay in Cambridge. It is a story of Hardy's partnership with Ramanujan and the opposition that he faces for his decision. Hardy's attempt to understand Ramanujan's genius and trying to help him project himself better to be accepted by the academic world forms the crux of the story. The movie is an adaptation of a 1991 book of the same name and serves less as a biopic on Ramanujan, rather focusing on Hardy's tryst with the genius. The movie beautifully develops the character of Hardy as a reserved man with very few friends and no family, with mathematics as the only driving factor in his life. Hardy's care and concern for Ramanujan, makes him experience the human side within himself where many a times he is at a loss of words or gestures to convey his emotions, but is understood and appreciated by Ramanujan none the less. It is the story of his tryst with a genius that made him experience life from a different perspective.

Don't miss this movie. Its a master piece of a divine mathematician. He made India proud by his work in mathematics and opened windows for world to recognize his work and do something good for the people. Purely Indian.Time worthy. Worth watching this biography.Its motivating movie. Thanks