The Man Who Knew Infinity (2015)

The story of the life and academic career of the pioneer Indian mathematician, Srinivasa Ramanujan, and his friendship with his mentor, Professor G.H. Hardy.

Director:

Matt Brown (as Matthew Brown)

Writers:

Matt Brown (screenplay), Matt Brown

Stars:

Dev Patel, Jeremy Irons, Malcolm Sinclair

1 win & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jeremy Irons	...	G.H. Hardy
Dev Patel	...	S. Ramanujan
Malcolm Sinclair	...	Professor Cartwright
Raghuvir Joshi	...	Narasimha
Dhritiman Chatterjee	...	Narayana Iyer (as Dhritiman Chaterji)
Stephen Fry	...	Sir Francis Spring
Arundathi Nag	...	Komalatammal
Devika Bhise	...	Janaki
Pádraic Delaney	...	Beglan
Toby Jones	...	Littlewood
Jeremy Northam	...	Bertrand Russell
San Shella	...	Dr. Muthu
Richard Cunningham	...	Hobson
Thomas Bewley	...	Baker
Anthony Calf	...	Howard

Storyline

In the 1910s, Srinivasa Ramanujan is a man of boundless intelligence that even the abject poverty of his home in Madras, India, cannot crush. Eventually, his stellar intelligence in mathematics and his boundless confidence in both attract the attention of the noted British mathematics professor, G.H. Hardy, who invites him to further develop his computations at Trinity College at Cambridge. Forced to leave his young wife, Janaki, behind, Ramanujan finds himself in a land where both his largely intuitive mathematical theories and his cultural values run headlong into both the stringent academic requirements of his school and mentor and the prejudiced realities of a Britain heading into World War One. Facing this with a family back home determined to keep him from his wife and his own declining health, Ramanujan joins with Hardy in a mutual struggle that would define Ramanujan as one of India's greatest modern scholars who broke more than one barrier in his worlds.

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Plot Keywords:

academic | mathematics | india | madras india | 1910s | 

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Taglines:

An equation has no meaning to me unless it expresses a thought of god.".

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Genres:

Biography | Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for some thematic elements and smoking

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site [Japan]

Country:

UK USA

Language:

English Tamil Sanskrit

Release Date:

29 April 2016 (USA)

Also Known As:

El hombre que conocía el infinito

Filming Locations:

The Charterhouse, Charterhouse Square, London, England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

$10,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$80,325, 1 May 2016, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$3,866,794

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$12,158,142

Company Credits

Production Co:

Edward R. Pressman Film,Animus Films,Cayenne Pepper Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

108 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Stephen Fry and Jeremy Northam previously appeared in Gosford Park (2001).

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Goofs

Ramanujan did not grow up in Madras. He grew up in Sarangapani Street, Kumbakonam - a town that is 150 miles south of Madras. He moved to Madras as an adult.

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Quotes

S. Ramanujan: I owe you so much.
G.H. Hardy: No, it is I who owe you.

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Crazy Credits

Card before the title: "Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth but supreme beauty." - Bertrand Russell

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Connections

Featured in Projector: The Man Who Knew Infinity (2016)

User Reviews

Interesting but Slow

The problem with this movie is that not a lot happens. And it's very slow. The maths is too abstract for the average viewer to appreciate the ground breaking nature of S. Ramanujan's work. 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.

The movie struggles because it can't build to any kind of dramatic "Eureka" moment, when there's a sudden breakthrough that leads to some sort of climax that the general audience knows about. The Imitation Game (2014) at least had a sense of time running out with Alan Turing (and others) trying to find a code to crack the Enigma Machine in WWII. This movie hasn't got that sort of pressure and it doesn't build to any sort of major breakthrough. It's just an interesting story about a maths genius of the 20th Century who most people have never heard of.

The director has obviously tried to build up the love story to give the audience something to connect with, but unfortunately it is largely fictional. In real life, 21 year old Ramanujan married his young bride who was 9 or 10 at the time. 5 years later he left her in India with family as he set off for England and Cambridge. The interfering mother- in-law and the star crossed lovers scenario in the movie seems to be pretty fictionalised in an attempt to provide something a little less dry than maths equations.

Nevertheless, the movie is beautifully acted. It's just pretty slow.