Prelims 2016 · Q99
EasyA recent movie titled The Man Who Knew Infinity is based on the biography of
Answer & explanation
Answer: (a) S. Ramanujan
The Man Who Knew Infinity (2015) is a film on the life of the mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887-1920), with Dev Patel in the title role. It takes its name from Robert Kanigel's 1991 biography of Ramanujan, and the film adapts that book.
- ✓ (a) The film shows Ramanujan's rise from Madras to Cambridge and his work with G. H. Hardy. Ramanujan reshaped twentieth-century mathematics through work on infinite series, continued fractions and number theory.
- ✗ (b) S. Chandrasekhar was an astrophysicist, not a mathematician, and the film is not about him.
- ✗ (c) S. N. Bose was a physicist known for Bose-Einstein statistics; he is not the subject of this film.
- ✗ (d) C. V. Raman was a physicist who won the Nobel Prize for the Raman effect; the film is not about him.
Remember · The Man Who Knew Infinity (2015), starring Dev Patel, is the film on Srinivasa Ramanujan; his birthday, 22 December, is National Mathematics Day.
Sources
- Vigyan Prasar (Department of Science and Technology): A lesson from Ramanujan's elbow (Internet Archive copy) ↗ “advisor and associate producer of a recent film on Ramanujan, The man who knew infinity.”
- Encyclopaedia Britannica: Srinivasa Ramanujan ↗ · reference work “Ramanujan's life and contributions were brought to the screen in The Man Who Knew Infinity (2015), starring Dev Patel as Ramanujan and Jeremy Irons as Hardy.”
- India Science, Technology & Innovation portal (Department of Science and Technology): Ramanujan, The Man Who Knew Infinity ↗ “Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887-1920), the man who reshaped twentieth-century mathematics with his various contributions in several mathematical domains, including mathematical analysis, infinite series, continued fractions, number theory, and game theory”
- Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Science and Technology explainer: National Mathematics Day ↗ “National Mathematics Day (December 22) Celebrating the Birth Anniversary of the Great Mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan”
Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2016, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). Permalink ·