Documentary on Ramanujan explores his genius

Manik Gupta New Delhi, Sep 21 (PTI) "Ramanujan" was the reply of notedmathematician GH Hardy when someone asked about his greatestcontribution to mathematics. Hardy is credited for bringing Indian mathematicianSrinivasa Ramanujan to Cambridge and mentoring him. Documentary "Srinivasa Ramanujan: The Mathematician andhis legacy", screened at the recently held ‘Open Frame’ filmfestival and forum, depicts the child prodigy’s life and how heprovided the world with new possibilities in the field ofmaths. Nandan Kudhyadi, who had already made three differentdocudramas on Ramanujan, says he was fascinated by Ramanujan. "I read books on him and found the story fascinating. Ican say that it is India’s first authentic docudrama," said thedirector. Born in a small town of Erode, Tamil Nadu (then Madras),Ramanujan’s journey to excellence began from Kumbakonam. Hisromance with numbers started from day one of his school. Not letting his humble origin come in the way of his lovefor maths, he borrowed books from seniors to work on histheorems. The movie tells how the genius in maths lost hisscholarship after failing in other subjects in his intermediaryschool. To his luck, Hardy read one of his letters and invitedhim to Cambridge. "I remember my friend telling me how can I expect generalaudience to understand a film on Ramanujan? He said his workstarts with post-doctoral maths," said Nandan, who has over 65documentaries under his belt. "But the whole idea is to make the audience curious aboutthe subject, so that they go back and check about it onInternet and get inspired. "Initially, I wanted to make a documentary on CV Raman,but was told that his centenary is two years later. So it’sbetter that you make a movie on Ramanujan, whose centenary isjust round the corner. And this is how I made my firstdocudrama," he said. The documentary sees many famous mathematician’s talkingabout Ramanujan’s work, and the wonders it did to the world ofmathematics. (MORE) MG BKBK