Manik Gupta
New Delhi: “Ramanujan” was the reply of noted mathematician GH Hardy when someone asked about his greatest contribution to mathematics.

Hardy is credited for bringing Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan to Cambridge and mentoring him.

Documentary “Srinivasa Ramanujan: The Mathematician and his legacy”, screened at the recently held ‘Open Frame’ film festival and forum, depicts the child prodigy’s life and how he provided the world with new possibilities in the field of maths.

Nandan Kudhyadi, who had already made three different docudramas on Ramanujan, says he was fascinated by Ramanujan.

“I read books on him and found the story fascinating. I can say that it is India’s first authentic docudrama,” said the director.

Born in a small town of Erode, Tamil Nadu (then Madras), Ramanujan’s journey to excellence began from Kumbakonam. His romance with numbers started from day one of his school.

Not letting his humble origin come in the way of his love for maths, he borrowed books from seniors to work on his theorems.

The movie tells how the genius in maths lost his scholarship after failing in other subjects in his intermediary school. To his luck, Hardy read one of his letters and invited him to Cambridge.

“I remember my friend telling me how can I expect general audience to understand a film on Ramanujan? He said his work starts with post-doctoral maths,” said Nandan, who has over 65 documentaries under his belt.

“But the whole idea is to make the audience curious about the subject, so that they go back and check about it on Internet 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’s better that you make a movie on Ramanujan, whose centenary is just round the corner. And this is how I made my first docudrama,” he said.

The documentary sees many famous mathematician’s talking about Ramanujan’s work, and the wonders it did to the world of mathematics.

PTI