The Man Who Knew Infinity: Movie Review

Hello everyone!

This post is about a movie called "The Man Who Knew Infinity" that I recently watched and wanted to share my review. The movie is about the great Indian mathematician, Srinivasa Ramanujan.

                                                 !!!!ATTENTION SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Ramanujan was born on December 22, 1887 in Madras (now known as Chennai). From a very young age, he loved math and was obsessed with numbers. Because of his focus on math, he did not do very well in other subjects. He even got a job in accounting to work with numbers. In his spare time away from work, he would develop formulae and easier ways to do math. He worked on it so much that he wrote two text books. Seeing this, Ramanujan's boss decided to send some of his notes to a very smart math professor named G.H. Hardy who worked at the prestigious Trinity College in Cambridge, England. Hardy was amazed at Ramanujan's work and collaborated with his friend John Littlewood to figure out his notes and theorems. Hardy eventually invited Ramanujan to join him in Cambridge. Ramanujan accepted his invitation and boarded a ship to travel to England on March 17th, 1914.

Ramanujan started working with Hardy on his discoveries in math as soon as he arrived in England. The first few months at Cambridge were hard but eventually Ramanujan made friends. During the same time, World War I broke out making things difficult for students like Ramanujan. Food was always a problem as he was a vegetarian and the food served in the college was either meat or cooked in animal fat. This made Ramanujan to cook his own food.  Eventually, he got his bachelors degree in March 1916, which was a proud moment.

Ramanujan faced lots of discrimination in Cambridge because of his origins. This did not stop him and he kept working with focus and determination. Because of all the hardships with food, the World War, and lack of many friends, Ramanujan fell sick and was diagnosed with Tuberculosis. His condition became worse, but thanks to Hardy and the doctors, he recovered and decided to go back to India. Ramanujan bid farewell to Hardy with a heavy heart and arrived in Madras on March 27, 1919. After arrival, his health deteriorated and he died on April 26, 1919 at a very young age of 32 years.

Ramanujan was recognized by Trinity College after his passing away with a Fellowship. Even today, people are still deciphering his work and discovering new formulae in math. Did you know that Ramanujan's birthday, December 22nd, is National Maths Day? In honor of his 125th birthday, 2012 was declared National Mathematics Year. A really cool thing is that you can actually refer to Ramanujan's notebooks digitally, making his work memorable and immortal.

I not only watched the movie but I also read the Amar Chitra Katha (Indian informational comic) about Srinivasa Ramanujan. The comic is available at https://digital.amarchitrakatha.com/id005835497/Srinivasa-Ramanujan. 

I loved the movie but the only part that was difficult to understand was the advanced math that was referred by the actors. I would rate "The Man Who Knew Infinity" 4 1/2 stars and recommend you to watch it.

                                 

                                               

                                             

See you soon in my next blog!

                                                                           Bye!
                                                                           Adi