Wonderful Movie

best movie i've ever seen.

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

An excellent film with echoes of "Amadeus" where men marvel at the capacity for someone to create, without effort, that which only brilliance understands and comprehends. Instead of music, as was the case with "Amadeus," this story is of mathematics and a man who could create formulas, without proof, knowing that what he created was correct. The proof came later and established as fact, a man's extreme intelligence. Well worth taking the time to see this film.

The movie is about a Cambridge Mathematics Scholar G.H. Hardy's experience with the genius of S. Ramanujan, a self taught Indian Mathematician, who without any formal training went on to unravel complex theories of mathematics. The viewers get a glimpse of Ramanujan's background in colonial India where living in abject poverty, he is absolved in deriving answers to complex mathematical questions. In his town, he finds no one to understand his work and to earn a living starts working as an accounting clerk. As a stoke of luck, he gets guided to write a letter to a Cambridge scholar G.H. Hardy with his discoveries and G.H. Hardy gets responded back. Thus starts the story of a partnership between Hardy and Ramanujan, where Hardy puts trust in Ramanujan and arranges for his travel and stay in Cambridge. It is a story of Hardy's partnership with Ramanujan and the opposition that he faces for his decision. Hardy's attempt to understand Ramanujan's genius and trying to help him project himself better to be accepted by the academic world forms the crux of the story. The movie is an adaptation of a 1991 book of the same name and serves less as a biopic on Ramanujan, rather focusing on Hardy's tryst with the genius. The movie beautifully develops the character of Hardy as a reserved man with very few friends and no family, with mathematics as the only driving factor in his life. Hardy's care and concern for Ramanujan, makes him experience the human side within himself where many a times he is at a loss of words or gestures to convey his emotions, but is understood and appreciated by Ramanujan none the less. It is the story of his tryst with a genius that made him experience life from a different perspective.

Someone on line has expressed doubts whether Ramanujan really was beaten up by soldiers, suggesting that the episode was an invention of the director and added for effect. I would tend to agree, but can anyone tell us the truth? Even if a policeman was not on his beat nearby, I would have thought that in Cambridge some public-spirited citizen would have intervened. Anyway, would Tommies on leave really have acted that way? Were there similar incidents to give credibility?

This very good looking & interesting movie has the feel of a film made by someone who has not made a movie before, in fact, 'Infinity' represents director Mathew Brown's second feature. Brown works hard as both screenplay writer and producer and obviously means well but, to the trained eye something seems lacking. Fortunately, the choice of Londoner Larry Smith as director of photography is superb. Smith gives the film a lush visual treatment, either under direction from Brown or guided by his own professionalism. With a lesser cinematographer much more would have been lost. It could be said this is essentially a mathematicians' or historian's film but, as a biopic on the life of Tamil Indian Spinivasa Ramanujan, an ill-educated brilliant mind, it is insightful & compelling. Brown's screenplay is based on Award-winning American writer Robert Kanigel's biography of the same name – with Kanigel also co-producing the movie. Ramanujan's life was spent in poverty, his consuming passion and expertise were mathematics and one of his Indian employers, recognizing this, encouraged him to write to Cambridge Professor G.H.Hardy (Irons). This led to an invitation to study and contribute to Hardy's theories at Cambridge. Srinivasa (well played by Dev Patel) experienced the stifling (and cruel) class consciousness of the snobbish, British academic set - only holding his own through sheer tenacity & his superior numerical intellect. If looking for some based-on-fact inspiration this stylish (if not exciting) work should prove informative. The Music score also offers impressive atmospherics by skilfully blending western and eastern styles. As intelligent viewing, it comes recommended.