The Man Who Knew Infinity

This review may contain spoilers!

This film is like The Imitation Game, the only major differences being it has an Indian protagonist and it's a whole lot more boring. I would give The Man Who Knew Infinity a 4.5/10.

This film did a great job of portraying the genius of the main protagonist and how he built a relationship with the English professor who aided him in getting published. There was also a focus upon the racial prejudice against the Indian people during this time period and I thought this was shown quite well. The score for this film is quite important because it signifies the Indian roots of the film itself, we are also made to visualise the emotional struggles of Ramanujan through the music.

Jeremy Irons, who played G.H. Hardy, was a very gruff yet likable role in this film; it was quite important to see how well his relationship with Ramanujan developed. Dhritiman Chatterjee, who played Narayana Iyer, was a great mentor figure for Ramanujan before the England segment of the film; his constant reassurance and optimism were good qualities to see during this initial low point. Arundathi Nag, who played Komalatammal, was a great minor antagonist towards Bhise in this film; her out of touch manner and harmful actions made a strong mark upon the story. Toby Jones, who played Littlewood, was a very good-natured character and performance in this film; he had an incredible amount of chemistry with Irons from there very first scene together onwards. Anthony Calf, who played Howard, was a great recurrent antagonist to this film; his outburst towards Ramanujan is one of the most shocking and raw scenes of the film. Kevin McNally, who played Major McMahon, was the perfect display of character development in this film; he begins as a very vocal opponent of Ramanujan but by the end of the film expresses a completely different view which i thought was superbly performed. Shazad Latif, who played Chandra Mahalanobis, was one of the first genuine welcoming members of Cambridge that Ramanujan meets; I liked seeing a character who recognised and indicated important cultural qualities of Ramanujan as a character.

However the best performance came from Dev Patel, who played S. Ramanujan. patel is brutally honest in his performances, showing all the qualities of his character in a very open way. It is because of this method of performance that we find Patel so easy to connect with, he is a character that can very much be emphasised with. Patel shows the raw anger, humiliation, embarrassment and pain that Ramanujan experiences extremely well, some of the scenes where he presents these specific qualities are very shocking and hard to watch.

This film has terrible pacing and drags on for far too long, a big reason for this is that this film is obsessed with either talking about racial prejudice from time to time or focusing solely upon the mathematical proofs aspect of the main plot which is quite boring. Sadly the more exciting qualities of this film, such as the subplot between Ramanujan and his wife or the outbreak of the first World War, are neglected in favour of more lethargic scenes. The cinematography is agonisingly simple, the framework is basic and there was no real effort to create a visual style. The editing if simple, movement between shots isn't exciting and only serves to slow the pace of the film down further.

Stephen Fry, who played Sir Francis Spring, has no real reason to be in this film; Fry makes no mark and isn't particularly important to the film as a whole. Devika Bhise, who played Janaki, had no chemistry with Patel at all in this film; as a result the romantic subplot between the two of them felt awkward and forced. Padraic Delaney, who played Beglan, faded into the background more often than not; Delaney's only real purpose in this film was to create a dialogue for Irons to play against. Jeremy Northam, who played Bertrand Russell, didn't have much of a screen presence in this film; his purpose seemed to be to remind the audience of the impending war but it didn't help make that aspect of the film any more exciting. Richard Johnson, who played Vice Master Henry Jackson, was far too important a character to be given such a small role within the film; Johnson played a figure who could've been an interesting character if given the screen time to work with. Nicholas Agnew, who played Andrew Hartley, was an awkward addition to the cast of this film; his interaction with Patel and Latif felt out of place and a bit forced.