The Man Who Knew Infinity plays it very safe by reducing Ramanujan’s life into a well-established sellable movie formula.

But it’s a wonderful change from the fare we’ve getting recently.

The Man Who Knew Infinity has played the tropes well and comes very close to how the life and times would have actually been, more importantly, it sparked an interest in the person and his work; work that shaped our understanding of the modern world in numerous ways.

…the film’s main strength lies in Jeremy Irons’ performance. It’s one that holds the film together and raises its worth in the eyes of the discerning. While the story is about an extra-ordinary individual it plays out as something a little too cerebral and boring to reach out to a wider audience.

Well, as anyone who has sat down with a set of seemily incomprehensible numbers and watched them fall into place will know, it is not unlike a spiritual feeling.
Ultimately, you could say the film is bigger than the sum of its parts. Should Ramanujan agree.

In the ultimate analysis, Brown’s work may seem more like a piece of exotica — and this was exactly how Ramanujan was treated by students and professors at Cambridge.

The Man Who Knew Infinity is moving, but not as compelling as the real life story of the genius it celebrates. The definitive film on Ramanujan remains to be made; one that will have the heft of The Imitation Game or A Beautiful Mind; one that will sidestep the formulaic screenplay and exotica, but won’t shy away from solving equations.

It tells an important story and it does make a meal out of the subject. Ramanujan’s tale needs an audience because in terms of achievement his contribution to the world of mathematics was perhaps greater than that of Sachin Tendulkar’s to cricket.

Here is a rare film that allows us a lucid glimpse into the anguished heart of  ​a ​soul that couldn’t fathom the depth of its own brilliance. Almost a century after Ramanujan’s death this film unravels the mystique of the unschooled maestro who didn’t know why numbers meant so much to him.

…is worth watching as it makes an earnest attempt in enlightening viewers about a great mind who left an incredible mark in the field of Mathematics. Though there are some great performances and sequences, the shortcomings make it just a one-time watch.

Although the storyline is decent, it could have been told much better, giving us more insight into his struggles in London. The film fails to leave a lasting impression. Dev Patel tries hard but isn’t convincing enough as Ramanujan. We do not get the opportunity to feel for him, when he’s been beaten up or when he’s diagnosed with advanced tuberculosis, yet persists in writing his proofs. Jeremy Irons outshines Dev Patel, with his genuineness.

The real drama of how Hardy brought out the sparkle in the diamond in the rough is reduced to a clash of working styles. At the heart of Robert Kanigel’s book is the indefinable bond between the two men, vastly different in education, temperament, approach and cultural values. A different kind of movie is required for this relationship to find expression.

The Mathematics portrayed in the film is fairly diluted so as to make the average audience member understand its concept and also grasp how complex it is and how Ramanujan was a genius to walk through it without batting an eyelid. It would have been more fun if the film’s presentation of the Maths was like the stock market detailing in The Big Short, but this will do for now.

Story wise, the makers have done a fine job to keep it to the point. Thanks to Matt Brown for making a film on this mathematician genius who certainly deserves to known in his own country.

To its credit, the film makes complex mathematics fairly accessible, even to a non-math person. But what’s the point if one fails to engage with the man behind the math?

The period detailing – be it a rustic locale or sophisticated surroundings – is quite superb. Brown also tries to give the story an emotional touch, to good effect. And in fact, it is this which makes this film both enjoyable and gripping.