Review of The Man Who Knew Infinity (2016) by Jhep — 06 Jun 2016

The Man Who Knew Infinity.

… is a remarkable film that is hard to “see“..... It is based on the true story of the mathematical genius Srinivasa Ramanujan whose extraordinary gifts catapulted him from obscurity to being elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in Great Britain and to becoming the youngest person ever to become a Fellow of Trinity College at Cambridge. ….These developments occurred in the year 1918 when Ramanujan was just 31...…The reason I say “The Man Who Knew Infinity” is “hard to see” is because it's about the culture shock which occurs when East meets West….or more exactly when WEST meets EAST; in effect film is basically dealing with the waning of a Euro-centric society addicted to the fantasy and hubris of limitless progress through science and technology (and the Cartesian rationalism-on-steroids that drives it) and what happens when such a society abruptly encounters a more comprehensive, more wholistic culture in which intuition, poetic inspiration and mysticism haven’t yet lost their influence on the human imagination: viz. West meets East…..The film stars Jeremy Irons and Dev Patel (the star of Danny Boyle‘s superb “Slumdog Millionaire”) and both are truly excellent here…..In today’s world of accelerating climate change and the out-of-control technology that powers it “The Man Who Knew Infinity” contains a message- indeed a warning- that definitely needs to be heeded.