Dev Patel stars as Srinivasa Ramanujan a self taught, Indian mathematician who’s work in the field of number theory during the era around World War I resulted in the discovery of a number of new ideas in the area of mathematics. This movie is the tale of his initially attempt to get his ideas discovered, his trip to England to work with theorist GH Hardy (Jeremy Irons) and the struggle both men faced to have Ramanujan ideas accepted.

Very similar in parts to both The Imitation Game and A Beautiful Mind but without the lead actor to drive the movie. Patel does a decent job as the overawed young man being dropped in at the deep end but there is only so much to be gained from shots of him running with his new ideas on paper and this role lacks the heart of the performance he showed in Slumdog Millionaire while his relationship with his wife Janaki (Devika Bhise) never has the impact that the situation should have brought to the screen. It is Irons who stands out and his dry humour will have you chuckling while his characters development from doubting teacher to partner and friend is the best, and most believable, part of the movie with Toby Jones turn as John Edensor Littlewood also worth a mention, even if his part is a lot smaller.

It’s a typical tale of the new kid in town, initially ostracised by most who eventually wins people over against the odds and credit must be given to the fact that they didn’t try and dumb down the movie by trying to use exposition to explain the theories and by actually filming in and around the college the atmosphere of the movie feels in keeping with the time. It is just a case that for every scene which works there are many others that don’t and the really clever ones such as the exchange by Hardy and Ramanujan about the special fact that cab number 1729 is a very special cab because it is the smallest possible number that is expressible as the sum of two cubes in two different ways. (I’m taking their word for it) are lost among the rest of the film so it feels like there was a lot of potential with the story of Ramanujans obvious genius that was left unexplored thus the film fails to elevate itself above the many other fish out of water tales which have preceded this one.

DJ Speaks Rating: 5.5 Out Of 10