By John Campbell
It’s an important coincidence that this film of love and acceptance should turn up so soon after our nation’s soul has been indelibly stained by the filth uttered by the pile of slime in a suit that is the federal immigration minister. As a mathematician, S Ramanujan (Dev Patel) was a rare genius. Leaving his young wife to live with his mother in Madras, he sailed to England to further his career just before the outbreak of WWI.
Driven by an ambition to have his groundbreaking theories published, at Cambridge he found the perfect mentor in GH Hardy (Jeremy Irons). The movie deals initially with the usual problems encountered by the outsider who wants to be accepted by those who would look down on him. Ramanujan’s race, his vegetarianism and homesickness, his upstart self-confidence all hinder his progress, but most confronting to the professorial elite is his intuitive approach to his work. To them he must produce unarguable proofs to support his discoveries and it is when director Matt Brown explores more closely the vast spiritual and psychological chasm that Ramanujan and Hardy must bridge that the film finds its spellbinding pitch.
For Ramanujan, a devout Hindu, his inspiration comes directly from God – the numbers that fly into his head mean nothing if they don’t express a divine truth – whereas the atheist Hardy can only comprehend that which is arrived at through scholarly pragmatism. It is a frustrating journey for both men, but in Hardy’s case he understands that his protégé has more to offer than can be so haughtily dismissed by his peers – and, thankfully, Brown does not muddy his theme by spending too much time with those unfathomable equations.
Patel brings to his part the unstinting enthusiasm with which he lit up The Best Marigold Hotel without ever succumbing to the head-wobbling wallah that would only mock the stature of Ramunujan, while Irons’s mellifluous performance is rich in empathy and wonder – his final address to the board sitting to determine Ramanujan’s worthiness for a fellowship is a speech of heartfelt self-realisation.
