Srinivasa Ramanujan: India’s Beautiful Mind
Movies about mathematicians are always fascinating and interesting. Some of my favorite movies that are based on mathematicians are good will hunting, Beautiful mind and pi. Out of these movies beautiful mind was the only movie depicting the life of a real life mathematician.
Beautiful mind is the story of John Nash, a mathematician and economist who won the Nobel Prize for his work in game theory. The movie basically concentrates on his initial years at Princeton University and his struggles against paranoid schizophrenia and delusional episodes that he experiences and finally his determination to come out of this. The movie was adapted from the Pulitzer prize nominated book of the same name by Sylvia nazar. I have read the book and should say that it a great book which explains thoroughly his years as a young mathematician. The first part of the book captures the essence of studying in colleges like Princeton, being constantly surrounded by geniuses like him which I thought was the most interesting and fun part of the book. I can say the movie was a good adaptation but I wouldn’t say it a great adaptation again. The film missed lot of points and it concentrated on the John Nash the man more than John Nash, the mathematician. I guess that always a trade off in movies based on mathematicians. The direction was O.K according to me but what blew me away was the performance of Russell Crowe in it.
There is a scene in Good Will Hunting where Robin Williams and Stellan Skarsgard compare Matt Damon to a mathematical genius from India. And the mathematical genius that I am mentioning here is Srinivasa Ramanujan(SR). The only difference is that he is real life character unlike Will. SR is considered to be one of the greatest mathematicians india has ever produced. I read his biographical book called “The man who knew Infinity” by Robert Kanigel and I can say that his is a fascinating story.
SR was born in a Brahmin family in Erode, Tamil Nadu on 22 December 1887. Ramanujan showed an interest in mathematics at an early age . At sixteen, Ramanujan borrowed a book titled “Synopsis of Elementary Results in Pure and Applied Mathematics”. This book was to prove a deep influence on Ramanujan’s
development as a mathematician, for it offered mathematical theorems without accompanying proofs. But in Ramanujan it inspired a burst of feverish mathematical activity, as he worked through the book’s results and beyond. Unfortunately, his total immersion in mathematics was disastrous for Ramanujan’s academic career: ignoring all his other subjects, he repeatedly failed his college exams. As a college dropout he worked as a clerk at Madras Port trust. During this period Ramanujan had his first paper published a 17-page work on Bernoulli numbers that appeared in 1911 in the Journal of the Indian Mathematical Society. Still no one was quite sure if Ramanujan was a real genius or a crank. With the encouragement of friends, he wrote to mathematicians in Cambridge seeking validation of his work. Twice he wrote with no response; on the third try, he found Hardy, a distinguished mathematician at cambridge. But Hardy was determined that Ramanujan be brought to England. Ramanujan’s arrival at Cambridge was the beginning of a very successful five-year collaboration with Hardy.In 1918 Ramanujan was elected a fellow of the Cambridge Philosophical Society and as a fellow of the Royal Society of London .But the alien climate and culture took a toll on his health and his health deteriorated.He returned to india in 1919 and died the next year due to tuberculosis. He was 32 when he died.He made substantial contributions in mathematical analysis, number theory and infinite series.
His papers are still plumbed for their secrets. His theorems are being applied in areas like polymer chemistry, computers and even in cancer research. His story is a clash of cultures between India and the West, about the social and educational systems and how they sometimes nurture talent and sometimes crush it. This is a story, too, about what you do with genius once you find it. Ramanujan was a simple man. His needs were simple, so were his manners and humor. But he was most complex mathematician and a real genius who is compared to Jacobi and Euler. SR was a very spiritual person and always related mathematics
to god and spiritualism.
He once said “An equation for me has no meaning unless it expresses a thought of god”
We always speak about Indian movie winning an Oscar. Well this story has the potential to cross the barriers and capture every body’s imagination throughout the world.
Couple of projects has been already announced on this subject (one by the collaboration of dev benegal and Stephen fry and one by Edward Pressman and Matthew Brown) but I haven’t heard much about the progress of these projects.
It makes me sad and angry to think that the Indian film industry always ignores subjects like this. We must have made around 10 films on devdas till now (and more are coming) but not even one movie on mathematicians and scientists.
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
“It makes me sad and angry to think that the Indian film industry always ignores subjects like this. We must have made around 10 films on devdas till now (and more are coming) but not even one movie on mathematicians and scientists” Brilliant! guess it is all about economics, and are there any matured biopics from India barring a few here and there?.
on a side note, for me one of the most touching scenes was the Pen ceremony in A Beautiful Mind. Moves you and the finale being the Nobel ceremony!
Bharath Vineeth, Your post is one of the best I have read so far in PFC. It made for a comelling read. Congrats!
compelling…sorry!
Bharath that is a fantastic post on one of the greatest Indian minds of all time.
I had already written about Ramanujam in my blog. Forget about the Indian movie industry, am not sure how many would even know about him.
http://scorpiusmaximusindicus.blogspot.com/search/label/Ramanujan
Check this out.
have always wanted to see a film being made on this genuis …he was one of the idols for me when i was growing up.
i think dev benegal is perhaps making a film on him
A film on Ramanujam? I seriously feel a film shouldn’t be made on him here atleast. Not sure if it could be justified on screen. I mean his story and who he was..
And By Dev Benegal? Nopes…Not quite on the mark…
Who is playing Ramanujam? This role would be very difficutl to pull off, not many would be able to do it, Im’ sure. He should be subdued, understated but still tearing genius at the same time. However, there was one more genius mathematician – Vashisth Narayan, I had written about him here :
http://icas-manipal.blogspot.com/2007/01/ignominy-of-being-indian.html
My only wish is that if ever a movie is made on him then it should stay true to the character and should not be dumbed down for the audience to grasp it………..even in Beautiful Mind I was wishing that more emphasis was given to the Mathematics aspect …..
One issue is that traditionally creative people have been poor at maths when they were young. So they despise the subject and refrain from making a movie on the topic.
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Exceptions are definitely possible. And it’s really good that you’ve raised his topic.
Sameer, seems a pretty vague generalization for me. One of the most creative minds Leonardo Da Vinci was also one of the best mathematicians. And most of the famous scientists have a creative side also, Samuel Morse was a painter, Einstein was famous for his musical skills.
@Sameer
while what you said is true…….you cannot generalize it……I have seen many exceptions ,the problem is that most of the people who are good at maths/sciences and arts as well ,take up the former route since it guarantees a stable future…….
also maths is beyond the grasp of most people, so if characters start talking about godel’s theorem and chaos theory in movies then it will put most people off….
Bharath… that was a good post…
Coincidentally, i was thinking about the same subject – that why films on scientists are not made in India when one of my friends recommended “Pi” for me…
That would be coming of age for Indian Cinema…
the fact that you know about beautiful mind today is an effect of audience giving it the kind of recognition it deserved…..can our movie on ramanujam create that sort of a ripple effect…guess both filmmakers and the audience should “come of age” to give a movie the recognition it deserves!!….constant evolution of US and THEM will help us achieve us achieve our dreams in pertinence to filmmaking……!!!hope u keep it alive and grow with it !…
thanks for all the responses……
well, dev benegal has announced this project in 2006 and shooting was supposed to start in 2007 but the nobody knows who is playing ramanujan and any progress about this project..so it might be a great opportunity for the indian film makers to dwell into this now…
mani ratnam was once asked in an interview that why he hasnt made another movie( after nayakan ) with kamal hassan and he replied that he hasn’t got a script and the perfect role for him yet…. well, how about this movie…..if there is one main stream director who can direct this movie then it is mani ratnam…..
oh yes !!! mani ratnam…..undoubtedly!
@ Bharath: Hmmmm..yes…Mani Ratnam. The Mani Ratnam of the Nayakan, Mouna Ragam times. This director completely slipped out of my mind..
Mani Ratnam, would be a good choice, provided he sticks to the topic as is. If he goes for commercial elements like item numbers, and dream songs, that would make a total mockery of the entire subject.
And that reminds me, one of the best biopics i had seen in recent times was Bharati in Tamil. It had a fantastic performance from Sayaji Shinde as Subramaniam Bharati.
if age is not a factor, cant think of anyone but Pankaj Kapoor to play the lead..
Well… It would be wrong to say we didn’t have a movie, not even one on scientists. “Ek Doctor Ki Maut” is an example of what i meant.
There has been a recent novel on Ramanujam, The Indian Clerk by David Leavitt. The movie rights are being worked out.
In indian cinema, forget maths, you hardly have any substantial theme/topic. Only Love. Done to death formulae a hundred times over. Guys like TN Session, who changed a lot of stuff, Abdul Kalam even Sourav Ganguly, You can make diverse movies which will pull in crowds also.
Ramanujam’s story is replete with cinematic potential. google his last conversation with Hardy in hospital bed if you don’t know. It’s pity our great directors like AK, Mr. Sudhir Mishra are all busy making Devdas!!
AK I thought was analytically adept at making a movie on mathematics. When I see his movies, I feel how an IIT grad would have made a movie with zero emotion. It’s a pity he’s not doing such stuff.
A beautiful mind was a land mark movie. Ron Howard’s best.
@subhasish….
perfectly said….u are spot on
would love if AK, sudhir mishra and other film makers who write for PFC will comment on this subject….
Hello everyone – good news for u guys…
My friend “Santosh Dhavala” is a film-maker who has made a Documentry on “Ramanujan” which features Abdul Kalam also in it… they worked on this documentry for around 2 yrs and is on editing table right now … Tom Alter is also there as a narrator.. this documentry will be out within a month or so….
why no remakes of “ek doctor ki maut”, the film was brilliant and so much more could have happened in it yet.
The project has been shelved, the last I heard of it.
Ramanujan, finally!
The conversation between Ramanujan and Hardy, that I mentioned, goes like this -
Hardy used to visit him, as he lay dying in hospital at Putney. It was on one of those visits that there happened the incident of the taxicab number. Hardy had gone out to Putney by taxi, as usual his chosen method of conveyance. He went into the room where Ramanujan was lying. Hardy, always inept about introducing a conversation, said, probably without a greeting, and certainly as his first remark: ‘I thought the number of my taxicab was 1729. It seemed to me rather a dull number.’ To which Ramanujan replied: ‘No, Hardy! No, Hardy! It is a very interesting number. It is the smallest number expressible as the sum of two cubes in two different ways.’
The sum of cubes that one arrives at 1729 are 1^3 + 12^3 = 1729 and 9^3 + 10^3 = 1729. 1729 turns out to be smallest.
How someone just knows that, I will never know. But from the informal glancing at Ramanujan’s work, he saw numbers differently. How much of this was a product of not being substantially formally educated, I don’t know. I do think that learning in a more open-ended fashion, as Ramanujan did, has benefits. Hardy made some remarks in a similar vein.
@Bharat: Great topic, probably one of the few thats safely left untouched in this forum. Thanks, Now your job is to get the eyeballs of people to read this.. AK, SM and their likes..towards this topic. (Sad state is that, even such great topic requires selling)
@Subhasish: Man, wow..you worded out exactly the state.
The discussion should not head about the actors who could be the best man, but the makers. Its the guts about like minds of AK, SM to touch such a subject. I am sure, you can find 100s of such inspirations in this famous country. But still the makers look for inspirations and spend their time to find out the best possible imitations to suit our nativity.
The situation is changing, makers down south are now trying to be creative but they bound to be regional.
All I want to say is, it doesn’t take to be a Mani Ratnam to choose such a topic( Lately he too has fallen into inspirations and imitations category) but a strong executioner. He can rise from no where.
The last one that I wanted to ask: “Is somebody listening down here??”
@ravptor
Not exactly… editing is going in full swing.. as of now the date they are launching the documentry is 22nd Dec.. u can talk to Santosh Dhavala(Director of the Documentry) at 9769726617 …
Hi A movie is Infact being made on Ramanujan – by Dev Benegal director of movies like English August and Split Wide Open
he is currently on post-prod of another film after which the Ramanujan movie will definitely happen
Cheers
To add to what the above comment from sarat says, heres more info on the Ramanujan film
http://roadmovie.augustentertainment.com/about.html
& some more
http://devbenegal.com/2006/03/15/feature-film-on-math-genius-ramanujan/