Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Jeremy Irons | ... | G.H. Hardy | |
Dev Patel | ... | S. Ramanujan | |
Malcolm Sinclair | ... | Professor Cartwright | |
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Raghuvir Joshi | ... | Narasimha |
Dhritiman Chatterjee | ... | Narayana Iyer (as Dhritiman Chaterji) | |
Stephen Fry | ... | Sir Francis Spring | |
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Arundathi Nag | ... | Komalatammal |
Devika Bhise | ... | Janaki | |
Pádraic Delaney | ... | Beglan | |
Toby Jones | ... | John Edensor Littlewood | |
Jeremy Northam | ... | Bertrand Russell | |
San Shella | ... | Dr. Muthu | |
Richard Cunningham | ... | Hobson | |
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Thomas Bewley | ... | Baker |
Anthony Calf | ... | Robert Alfred Herman |
In the 1910s, Srinivasa Ramanujan is a man of boundless intelligence that even the abject poverty of his home in Madras, India, cannot crush. Eventually, his stellar intelligence in mathematics and his boundless confidence in both attract the attention of the noted British mathematics professor, G.H. Hardy, who invites him to further develop his computations at Trinity College at Cambridge. Forced to leave his young wife, Janaki, behind, Ramanujan finds himself in a land where both his largely intuitive mathematical theories and his cultural values run headlong into both the stringent academic requirements of his school and mentor and the prejudiced realities of a Britain heading into World War One. Facing this with a family back home determined to keep him from his wife and his own declining health, Ramanujan joins with Hardy in a mutual struggle that would define Ramanujan as one of India's greatest modern scholars who broke more than one barrier in his worlds. Written by Kenneth Chisholm (kchishol@rogers.com)
Just saw this film at the SF Film Festival. I thought it was excellent. Why? It combines various levels of entertainment: the intellectual mathematics involved and the realities of academic competition; the historical and cultural conflicts between Indian and English traditions, attitudes, biases, and beliefs; the emotional love/friendship between men, between men and women, and between children and parents; and inhumanity towards other humans: warmongers vs. pacifists, religious vs. non-religious, individuals vs. groups, misunderstandings and lack of emotional intelligence in so many ways.
I comprehended very little of the mathematics involved but that did not matter and did not change my overall appreciation for the story and all the levels involved.
Kudos to all who created this film. The writing, the acting, the cinematography, the direction, all excellent...