Ravi Patel

HSS 403-002
Professor Castronova
The film that we were supposed to watch this week was The
Man Who Knew Infinity. Prior to watching the actual film itself, I first
went to Google to watch the trailer and see what reviews were
available. From Google I quickly learned that this was an underrated
movie that didnt receive much merit. After watching the film, I
personally give this movie a 4 out of 5 stars. The movie is sensed
around Srinivasa Ramanujan who is more than a natural with numbers.
Being born a Brahman and living in Madras India, Ramanujan is never
supposed to leave his home country. Being a Hindu, I understand the
difficulties Ramanujan faced, however, the changes he faced were
extreme because he was Brahman, which is considered the highest
class in India. While doing many lowly labor jobs, he sends letters to
many professors and one of these professors was G.H. Hardy, who at
the time was a famous mathematician at Cambridge University. Taking
special interest in Ramanujan, Hardy invites Ramanujan to Cambridge
to see his work more clearly and to prove it. Ramanujan wanted to
share what he knew about mathematics to the world and thanked god
for showing him the ways.
An online review by Keith Williams suggests that there should
have been much more movie time explaining Ramanujans early life
and what it was like to live in Madras at the time. Williams continues
his critique by stating that this movie is revolving around math, which

Ravi Patel
HSS 403-002
Professor Castronova
is actually a very difficult thing to do if you think about it. Williams
ends his review by rating the movie a good film, 3 out of 5 stars and by
stating that the early life should have been displayed more to make it
an even more brilliant film. I actually believe that Keith Williams has a
point. People need to see how Ramanujans life is in detail to truly
understand what his situation was like. We have to account for this
being the time where racial segregation and such existed.
In conclusion, this movie is definitely one to watch. It portrays a
man wanting to share what he knows to the world regardless of
whether he has a degree or not. The work Ramanujan did actually
helped scientists understand black holes better through the use of his
equations. The fellow G.H. Hardy did a good thing by listening to
Littlewood on what to do to Ramanujan before he departed to assist in
World War 1. It just goes to show that anyone can know anything.