Movie Review: The Man Who Knew Infinity

The Man Who knew Infinity is a 2015 British biographical drama about the life and academic career of the pioneer Indian mathematician, Srinivasa Ramanujan, and his friendship with his academic advisor, Professor G.H. Hardy. This movie is written and directed by Matthew Brown based on 1991 book with the same title written by Robert Kanigel.

The movie stars Dev Patel as Srinivasa Ramanujan, Jeremy Irons as G.H. Hardy, Devika Bhise as Janaki, and Toby Jones as John Edensor Littlewood. Ramanujan is portrayed as a pioneer Indian mathematician who growing up poor in Madras, India, leaving his wife, Janaki, after got admittance to Trinity College, Cambridge, during World War I under the supervising of brilliant and eccentric Professor G.H. Hardy. In the real life, Prof. Hardy only 10 years older than Ramanujan but in this movie, they’re look like father and son. On the other hand, Janaki, Ramanujan’s wife portrayed older than in the real life, whom married to Ramanujan at ten or twelve. Well, there are many good things to say about the film.

From this wonderful movie I know who Ramanujan is. I never heard of him before but I’m familiar with Hardy's name, whom known for his Hardy-Weinberg balance. I think all of the biology students will be quite familiar with his name.

I love the way Prof Hardy impressed by Ramanujan’s work. Well, Ramanujan gave him a looooot of theorems written on his letter to Hardy. I love their relationship. Ramanujan had a miraculous mathemathics talent, but being forced to prove its worth to the world. At least, this is what made a friction between him and his professor who tried to convince him that proofs in mathematics is very substantial and important.

While Hardy was an atheis, Rahmanujan was born as Brahmanian. It is believed that Brahmanian couldn’t leave his land and across the sea, or there will be no one marry his children. And it was so touching when Rahmanujan’s hair cut by Janaki right before he leave Madras and voyaged to England by ship. And the moment when Ramanujan keep his promise for being vegan, and became more difficult along the war, is respectful. I remember when Hardy asked him about where did Ramanujan get his theorems, and Ramanujan answered “An equation for me has no meaning, unless it expresses a thought of God.”

And here is my favourite quote from the movie:

Janaki: [holding Ramanujan's note book, seeing the computations] what does it all do?

Ramanujan: It's like a painting, I think. Only imagine it is with colors you cannot see.

Janaki: What good is that?

Ramanujan: [chuckles] Not much for you, I'm afraid. But for me it is everything. Maybe there is someone else who can see and understand it as well. And for them it will be important.

Janaki: Have you met them?

Ramanujan: No, not yet.

Janaki: I want to understand more than just colors I can’t see.

Ramanujan: what do you see?

Janaki: sand.

Ramanujan: yes. Imagine if we could look so closely, we could see each grain, each particle. You see, there are... There are patterns in everything, the color in light, the refections on water. In maths, these patterns reveal themselves, in the most incredible form. It's quite beautiful.

I love the script, and the lighting, and the music as well. Dev Patel has well known for his acting in Slumdog Millionaire, and here in this movie he once again gave us a brilliant acting skill. This movie got rating 62% on Rotten Tomatoes and 7.3 of 17k on IMDb. The Man Who knew Infinity maybe will remind you of Good Will Hunting, a 1997 American biographical drama about Will Hunting, a janitor at M.I.T. that has a gift for mathematics, starring Matt Damon. But let me tell you, this movie is highly recommended. So, happy watching!