IF you want to cast an underdog in your film, you need look no further than the unassuming Dev Patel.
Who’d have thought that the orphan street kid from Mumbai would make it all the way to the final question in ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ or that the similarly orphaned Pi, would survive a deadly boat ride with Bengali tiger, Richard Parker?
The odds were against him, but Dev, much like his Irish namesake, eventually came out on top.
In his new film, ‘The Man Who Knew Infinity’, Patel plays Srinavasa Ramanujan, an Indian shipping clerk and self-taught genius, who dropped out of college due to his obsessive, solitary study of mathematics.
Determined to pursue his passion despite rejection and derision from his peers, Ramanujan writes a letter to G. H. Hardy (Jeremy Irons), an eminent British mathematics professor at Trinity College, Cambridge.
Hardy recognises the originality and brilliance of Ramanujan’s raw talent and despite the skepticism of his colleagues, undertakes to bring him to Cambridge so that his theories can be explored.
Ramanujan leaves his family, his community, and his beloved young bride, to travel across the world to an England on the verge of war.
Once again we see that the odds are clearly stacked against Patel.
Although not orphaned, he finds himself alone again, in a strange country with odd customs. Will he be accepted by his colonial masters and betters, who may find it hard to believe that an ordinary man from India, might be smarter than they are.
The film raises some interesting questions about class, race, and most of all, faith. Can we believe something exists simply because we feel it, or must we always see the proof?
If you enjoyed films like ‘A Beautiful Mind’ and ‘Good Will Hunting’, you’ll be entertained here.
Patel and the always solid Irons are well cast, and this movie has a major advantage over other, more well-known films, which are based on real life events. You won’t know the ending. This is a movie with something for everyone, that we score a mathematically precise, 3.5 out of 5 stars.
Paul O’Rourke
