Sir Francis Spring: Letter for you, postmarked England.
Great knowledge comes from the humblest of origins. Hardy: For the good of everybody you should attend some lecture. Srinivasa Ramanujan: But I’m here to publish. The letter only contained a small sampling of my discoveries. It is always difficult to capture the life of a momentous genius within confines of a book or a film. It is in fact really tedious to showcase the life of a genius in its truest form and there is an increasing risk to blow things out of proportion, making it either too heroic or too eccentric and shady trying to portray the magnanimity of their talents and accomplishments. The whole attempt becomes even more difficult when the genius we are referring to emerge as one of the greatest super giants in scale and accomplishments, having a very short life span and tilts the axis of their work sphere with their innovative contributions. The book The Man Who Knew Infinity by Robert Kanigel has been a monumental encyclopedic work in its own frame. The author has sincerely articulated events in the life of this great man with meticulous perfection. Based on extensive research work conducted by the author with lively enthusiasm the life of Srinivas Ramanujan- an idyllic Tamil Brahman who’s every breath knew numbers in close proximity than any other normal social acquaintance that he possessed- has been presented with comprehensive compassion. The life of a genius of such proportion is always a captivating subject to study. However portraying the life of a mathematician on celluloid is often lurid and boring as mathematics as a subject to depict on screen is quite abstract and is very non relatable with the audience.
While on the other hand mathematics is such an integral part of Ramanujan’s life that any film without exhibiting a substantial portion of mathematical rigor will be thoroughly incomplete. The attempt to make such a film is indeed a brave attempt and at the same time a bit tricky. The task thus at hand in the hands of director Matt brown was monumental in its nature of complexity and abstraction. It also required years of painstaking labor and intense research work and more importantly assimilating useful material from a consortium of data collected over an epoch of time. What was most remarkable about the film was the sincerity that was evident from the outset to showcase the mammoth ability of a person with restrain, dignity keeping intact the values and sensibilities possessed by this genius which bore figments of his oriental beliefs, superstitions, intuition and isolation. It is a humongous job to portray the life and incidents of such a great man in a film within a close breadth of two hours. It often requires extensive editing thereby in some cases subtracting major incidents from the life of this person. As long as incidents are taken in proper stride and omission or editing doesn’t impede the understanding of the life and philosophy of a person omissions are okay. However often cuts are made in a manner that it obstructs the understanding of a character and its different facets and gives us an incomplete perspective of the person that touches the body but not the soul of the character involved.
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