The Man Who Knew Infinity : Ramanujan's Biopic

The man was Srinivas Ramanujan. Expectation was high. I bated breath when the title scrolled on screen. The previous biopic titled ‘Ramanujan’ directed by Gnana Rajasekaran on this enigmatic Indian autodidact, was a failed attempt to capture the essence of his short life, and the beauty lied in it.  But this one is a top class Hollywood production, though with relatively low budget. 

The movie began, and we heard the engaging voice of Cambridge mathematician G.H. Hardy (Jeremy Irons) depicting his relationship with this mysterious Indian in 2012 and then the story took us back to Madras in 1914, where Ramanujan (Dev Patel) was shown living in abject poverty and searching for a clerical job. The rest was his epic fight with people’s skepticism, incredulity and his fate, until he reached to the pinnacle of success. The hell of a story. The hell of a life. Tear jerking script.

Seasoned biographer Robert Kanigel wrote his book on Ramanujan with same title way back in 1991. The film primarily focuses Ramanujan’s simultaneous dual presence in Trinity College of Cambridge and Madras. His soul kept rambling through Madras, while he kept trying to convince the world about his mathematical prodigy at Cambridge. It shows his incredible conviction on his intuitive ability, his confidence against conventional mathematicians coupled with his profound love for his lone wife back in India and intense belief in his goddess, Namagiri. With that, the film narrates also the gradual ascend towards a special friendship with his mentor Prof. Hardy and steady descend towards irrecoverable Tuberculosis.

Unlike sportsmen or politicians or artists, biopics of scientists require double approach. Scientific jargons to show his brilliance, and a lone sad woman, whom he loves, to show his humane-side. Here, Janaki (Devaki Bhise) portrays the emotional Ramanujan, who comes back to her at the end, as he promised, now as a Fellow of Royal Society but dying. Devaki’s role is painstakingly beautiful. Dev Patel spectacularly submerges himself in the hugely challenging persona of Ramanujan, whose only few photos are available now. The knowledge that he couldn’t prove his theorems as fast as he was receiving them from his God, as he put to Prof. Hardy made this character impossible to portray. Dev succeeded with full marks.

But it was Jeremy Irons, who by his stellar performance as Prof. Hardy has made this biopic memorable, even Oscar-worthy. His love for mathematics, yet skepticism towards the unproven but right theorems of Ramanujan and his social high-handiness, yet gradual connection with this poor brown guy from a colony 6000 miles away are most valuable assets.

That doesn’t mean the film is great. There are glaring mistakes and loose plot. Example - at one point, in the year of 1914, a boat is shown with Indian Tricolor flag. The story doesn’t allow to know about Ramanujan’s work, only few pages of advanced math and fewer references of Number Partition. But why it’s important? We don’t know. We’re denied the privilege. How audience can connect with a story, if they don’t know the purpose? The film also disturbingly silent on the effects of WW-I on Ramanujan, except an incident of racism. On this point, ‘The Theory of Everything’ and ‘The Imitation Game’ are far enjoyable and truthful than ‘The Man Who Knew Infinity’.

Read my review in Vicinito.

Verdict:

Yes – Best biopic on Ramanujan. Does justice to his enigmatic yet short life.

No - The film relied on heart, but ignored brain. Low budget, low visual effects.

Watch for – Jeremy Irons’ Oscar-worthy performance as Prof. G.H. Hardy.