Mathematics is not the topic most people would prefer as a  film topic, right?  Well, Matthew Brown, who directed, worked for 10 years with mathematics experts to insure the proofs and theories were correct and that the audience would not be bored with it all.

Dev Patel, known from  “Slumdog Millionaire”, “Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, “The Newsroom,” and “Life of Pi,”   a star in his own short life, was a able to hold his own with Jefferey Irons, a cinematic giant, is  a brilliant but crotchety old English Professor at Trinity College, Cambridge.  Patel plays a young visionary Indian mathematician  who grew up in poverty in  Madras (now Chennai) India.  He became a pioneer in mathematical theory recognized from his time in England.

I was not thrilled at seeing this On Demand last night because of the title.  But I was pulled in from the opening scenes in India.  (DBell doesn’t think the temple was not  in Madras, but never mind.  It is a lovely Hindu temple somewhere in India! Maybe one of my Indian friends knows the location of this temple)  Next are the interiors and exteriors of Trinity College, Cambridge which , too , are so beautiful. Soon the audience discovers there is insidious bigotry  beneath the manners and setting of this  beauty.

I was touched by the transparency of the characters, the plot based on  the true story of this Indian mathematician, Ramunujan, inspired by his spirit and forgiveness. There is family, friendship, suffering, vision, and  people who are willing to change.  I have to admit, I cried, wept really  in this this film.  My heart was truly touched . . . . but not with the math!

* * * * * stars from me !

The full length film is available for free, I think, on YouTube.com or On Demand.  Let me know what you think.