Published 20:31 IST, October 15th 2019
World Mathematics Day: 5 Films that captured love for numbers
World Mathematics Day: 5 Films that captured love for numbers. Vidya Blan launched the trailer of her new film Shakuntala Devi-Human Computer on the occasion.
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World Maths Day emerged from an online international mathematics competition, powered by educational resource provider 3P Learning. The day was first observed on March 14, 2007 (Pi Day), and has been held on the 1st Wednesday in March in subsequent years. The Day created a Guinness World Record for the Largest Online Maths Competition in 2010. Though maths is considered a terror amongst most of the students, once one learns the beauty of it, it is on one's fingertips. The same was preached by many on the silver screen with movies on various real-life mathematicians who learned the magic of numbers and serve as an example for the students who fear it.
Shakuntala Devi-Human Computer
On the occasion of World Mathematics Day, Bollywood actor Vidya Balan who is all set to essay the role of maths genius Shakuntala Devi in the upcoming biopic- 'Shakuntala Devi-Human Computer', shared an intriguing math problem on social media. Paying tribute to Shakuntala Devi, she shared a video on Instagram where she asked fans to solve a 'simple yet interesting' equation. "This World Mathematics Day, celebrating the woman who made math fun," wrote Vidya Balan on releasing the teaser of her upcoming film. Slated for a 2020 release, the movie is based on the life of the mathematical genius of the same name who was able to make incredibly swift calculations on her fingertips.
The Man Who Knew Infinity
The Man Who Knew Infinity is a biographical drama based on the Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan. The film's script follows a book by the same name. Actor Dev Patel plays the character of Srinivasa Ramanujan, a real-life mathematician who, after growing up poor in Madras, India, earns admittance to Cambridge University during World War I, where he becomes a pioneer in mathematical theories with the guidance of his professor, G. H. Hardy, portrayed by Jeremy Irons. It had its world premiere as a gala presentation at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival and was selected as the opening gala of the 2015 Zurich Film Festival.
The Imitation Game
The Imitation Game is a 2014 American historical drama directed by Morten Tyldum. It is based on the biography Alan Turing: The Enigma by Andrew Hodges. Turing decrypted German intelligence messages for the British government during the Second World War which is played by Benedict Cumberbatch. The film grossed over $233 million worldwide on a $14 million production budget, making it the highest-grossing independent film of 2014. It won Best Adapted Screenplay at 87th Academy Awards and the People's Choice Award at the 39th Toronto International Film Festival.
Pi (film)
Pi is a 1998 American neo-noir psychological thriller film written and directed by Darren Aronofsky. As it was filmed on high-contrast black-and-white reversal film, it earned Aronofsky the Directing Award at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival, the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay and the Gotham Open Palm Award. The screenplay explores themes of religion, mysticism, and the relationship of the universe to mathematics based on mathematical value pi. The story is about a mathematician with an obsession to find underlying complete order in the real world.
A Beautiful Mind
A Beautiful Mind is an American biographical drama film based on the life of John Nash. The film was directed by Ron Howard and was inspired by a bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-nominated 1998 book of the same name by Sylvia Nasar. Russell Crowe plays Nash and is accompanied by Ed Harris, Jennifer Connelly, Paul Bettany, Adam Goldberg, Judd Hirsch, Josh Lucas, Anthony Rapp, and Christopher Plummer in supporting roles. The film went on to gross over $313 million worldwide and won four Academy Awards, for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress. It was also nominated for Best Actor, Best Film Editing, Best Makeup, and Best Original Score.
(With inputs from ANI)
Updated 22:36 IST, October 15th 2019