Ramanujan Film English

[Elder Raman]

Thefilm stars Dev Patel as Srinivasa Ramanujan, a real-life mathematician who, after growing up poor in Madras, India, earns admittance to Cambridge University during World War I, where he becomes a pioneer in mathematical theories with the guidance of his professor, G. H. Hardy, portrayed by Jeremy Irons.

Filming began in August 2014 at Trinity College, Cambridge after eight years in development.[3] The film had its world premiere as a gala presentation at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival,[4][5] and was selected as the opening gala of the 2015 Zurich Film Festival.[6] It also played other film festivals including Singapore International Film Festival[7] and Dubai International Film Festival.[8]

At the turn of the twentieth century, Srinivasa Ramanujan is a struggling and indigent citizen in the city of Madras in India working at menial jobs at the edge of poverty. While performing his menial labor, his employers notice that he seems to have exceptional skills in mathematics and they begin to make use of him for rudimentary accounting tasks. It becomes equally clear to his employers, who are college-educated, that Ramanujan's mathematical insights exceed the simple accounting tasks they are assigning to him and soon they encourage him to make his personal writings in mathematics available to the general public and to start to contact professors of mathematics at universities by writing to them. One such letter is sent to G.H. Hardy, a famous mathematician at University of Cambridge, who begins to take a special interest in Ramanujan.[9]

Hardy soon invites Ramanujan to Cambridge to test his mettle as a potential theoretical mathematician. Ramanujan is overwhelmed by the opportunity and decides to pursue Hardy's offer, even though this means he must leave his wife Janaki for an extended period. He parts lovingly with Janaki and promises to keep up his correspondence with her.

Upon arrival at Cambridge, Ramanujan encounters various forms of racial prejudice and finds his adjustment to life in England more difficult than expected. Hardy, though much impressed by Ramanujan's abilities, remains concerned about Ramanujan's ability to communicate effectively due to his lack of experience in writing proofs, but with perseverance, he manages to get Ramanujan published in a major journal.[10] In the meantime, Ramanujan is diagnosed with tuberculosis and his frequent letters home to his wife remain unanswered after many months. Hardy continues to see much more promise in Ramanujan. However, he remains unaware of the personal difficulties his student is having with his housing and with his lack of contact with his family back home in India. Ramanujan's health worsens while he continues delving into deeper and more profound research interests in mathematics under the guidance of Hardy and others at Cambridge.

Janaki, after much elapsed time, wonders why she has not heard from Ramanujan and eventually discovers that his mother has been intercepting his letters, and withholding hers to him. Hardy makes special efforts to get Ramanujan's now recognizably exceptional mathematical skills accepted by the university, by nominating Ramanujan for a fellowship of Trinity College. At first, Hardy fails for reasons related to college politics and racial prejudice. By gaining the support of key members of the college, Hardy again successfully nominates Ramanujan as a Fellow of the Royal Society, thereby forcing his acceptance as a fellow of Trinity. Ramanujan is eventually reunited with his family in India, though his declining health, exacerbated by poor housing and harsh winter weather in England, ultimately takes its toll and leads to his death aged 32, soon after his recognition as a mathematician of international merit and importance.

Tamil actor R. Madhavan was initially selected to portray the lead role in the film after agreeing terms during January 2012, but the makers eventually decided they wanted an international actor to play Ramanujan.[12]

Film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 63% of critics gave the film a positive rating, based on 131 reviews with an average score of 6.2/10. The critics' consensus reads: "The Man Who Knew Infinity might be a tad too conventional to truly do its subject justice, but Dev Patel (Srinivasa Ramanujan) and Jeremy Irons (G.H. Hardy) elevate the end result beyond mere biopic formula."[13] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 56 out of 100 based on 26 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[14]

After the film's world premiere, Allan Hunter in Screen Daily found the film to be "a well-heeled, sincere production following the memories of Ramanujan's English mentor and friend ... The film tells such a good story that it is hard to resist. The old-fashioned virtues of a well-told tale and a particularly fine performance from Jeremy Irons should endear the film to that supposedly under-served older demographic who like to turn out for a weekday matinee ... Mathematics plays a key role in the story, but in a way that is entirely accessible, allowing the viewer to comprehend the advances that Ramanujan made and why his legacy remains so important almost a century after his death."[15]Deborah Young in The Hollywood Reporter found the film to be a "respectable but all too conventional biopic".[16]

Mathematicians Ken Ono and Manjul Bhargava collaborated on the film, which has been praised by mathematicians and scientists for its accurate mathematics and authentic portrayal of mathematicians.George E. Andrews, former President of the American Mathematical Society, praised the film for its moving portrayal of the deep relationship between Ramanujan and Hardy.[17]The London Mathematical Society proclaimed that the film "outshines Good Will Hunting in almost every way".[18]Reviewing the film for Nature, Andrew Robinson wrote that "the film took more than ten years to create. It is worth the wait."[19]

Ramanujan is a 2014 biographical film based on the life of Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan. The film, written and directed by Gnana Rajasekaran, was shot back to back in the Tamil and English languages.[1] The film was produced by the independent Indian production house Camphor Cinema, ventured by Srivatsan Nadathur, Sushant Desai, Sharanyan Nadathur, Sindhu Rajasekaran. The cast consists of Indian and British film, stage and screen personalities. It marks the Tamil debut of Abhinay Vaddi, the grandson of veteran Tamil film actors Gemini Ganesan and Savitri, as the protagonist.

Featuring an ensemble cast of Suhasini Maniratnam, Bhama, Kevin McGowan, Abbas Mirza, Nizhalgal Ravi, Michael Lieber, amongst others in supporting roles, the film was set in the early 1900s, tracing the life of Ramanujan, and shot across five different locations, across India and England, which includes Kumbakonam, Namakkal, Chennai, London and Cambridge. The film features, music and background score composed by Ramesh Vinayagam, cinematography handled by Sunny Joseph and editing done by B. Lenin.

Ramanujan was received Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Film in 2013, although the film had released, a year later. The film was released worldwide on 11 July 2014, across India and United Kingdom. It was released simultaneously in Tamil and English languages.

Set in the early 1900s, the film traces the life of the prodigious math genius Srinivasa Ramanujan from the time he was a young Tamil Brahmin to his years in England, where he attended Cambridge University during World War I. The film follows his relationships with his mother Komalatammal, his wife Janaki, and his collaborator Professor G. H. Hardy. The film also showcases how Indian society viewed a mathematician of such great stature.[2]

Gnana Rajasekaran looked for an actor who would physically resemble Ramanujan and signed Abhinay Vaddi, who is the grandson of veteran Tamil actor Gemini Ganesan, for the main role. Michael Lieber was signed to play Edensor Littlewood. Lieber confessed he had no knowledge of Ramanujan, when he signed the film, and went as far as to meet Bla Bollobs, who worked with Littlewood personally, for his research work. He found it difficult to speak the Tamil lines, but appreciated it later on, "I would be lying if I said that the task of learning Tamil was not daunting at first, but once I got the hang of it I was able to appreciate what a beautiful language it is. There were many different ways of learning the Tamil lines; some used audio tapes, prompting, flash cards, or word boards. I learnt the meaning of the words and memorised chunks of dialogue."[1] Similarly, Kevin McGowan, who was signed for the role of G. H. Hardy, was unfamiliar with the story of Ramanujan. The film also stars Bhama, Suhasini Maniratnam, Abbas and Richard Walsh amongst others.[7][8] Sunny Joseph, best known for his high-profile Malayalam works with directors Adoor Gopalakrishnan and Shaji N. Karun, was signed as cinematographer.

"My music tries to delve into the unfathomable mysterious and mystical mind of Ramanujan in its own world, which invariably found bliss in the triumph of originating newer and newer theorems. The music represents the tribulations of Ramanujan's life torn between hope and despair, and the loneliness that came along with the genius".

The film's soundtrack and score were composed by Ramesh Vinayakam. Vinayakam called it an honour to have composed music for the film and "an opportunity for me to travel on a new path" and added that he was given the required creative freedom by the director and producer.[13] He said that he had to go classical for one part of the film and into European sounds for another segment.[14] No modern instruments, but old world instruments were used in order to bring the period alive,[13] while four orchestral pieces were recorded in Germany, where the composer worked with the Stuttgart-based GermanPops Orchestra that has worked on contemporary and classical styles.[14] Being a film about a mathematician, the songs were related to mathematical terms as well. Poet Vaali had written a number, "Narayana Narayana", which was said to "incorporate the idea of infinity and nothingness", while another number, written by Thirumalisai Alvar thousands of years ago, "stresses that numbers are absolute".[15] One of the instrumental tracks, "One to Zero" was described as a "musical metaphor" as it was based on the numbers, with Vinayakam explaining, "One is represented by one note, two by two notes and so on, while zero is represented by a rest.[15] After the initial exposition, at any point of time, three of these layers criss-cross each other from a distance of one beat from each other".[14] "Narayana" was sung by Vani Jayaram, who said that she was initially surprised that she was given a song whose pitch (shruthi) was less than what she usually sings in but learned that, in the days of Ramanujan, people only sang in that pitch.[14]

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