Unlike everyone around her who has memories of meeting mathematician Shakuntala Devi when she visited their school or at one of her talks, filmmaker Anu Menon does not have any such recollection. An engineering graduate, Menon had not even read any of her books. But knowledge about Devi, she says, is like one of those old Hindi songs “that you just know”. After directing the critically acclaimed Waiting (2015) and co-directing the first season of Four More Shots Please! (2019), Menon was looking for the story of a woman in maths “because we rarely tell such stories”. The first name that came up was that of Devi. The fact that the mathematician’s daughter, Anupama Banerji, lived in London, where Menon is based, helped. The film Shakuntala Devi premieres on Amazon Prime Video on July 31.
Devi, a math wizard known as the “human computer”, simplified complex mathematical equations for countless students. Her name was included in the Guinness Book of World Records in 1982 for multiplying two 13-digit numbers in just 28 seconds. In the 1970s, Devi’s husband, Paritosh Banerji, an IAS officer, came out as gay. It inspired her to write a book on homosexuality called The World of Homosexuals—an empathetic “inquiry into the lives of a minority of her fellow humans who have lived half-hiding throughout their lives”.
“We had so much information that we had to figure out what was actually going into the film,” says Menon, who did interviews lasting several hours with Banerji. “We got an intimate peep into everything there was to [know about] Shakuntala Devi. We matched [our research] with what Anupama provided us—her memories, anecdotes, and a wealth of photographs.”
This story is from the August 09, 2020 edition of THE WEEK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the August 09, 2020 edition of THE WEEK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
BIOPIC AND BEYOND
Randeep Hooda may have proved his acting credentials with biopics, but typecast him at your own peril
Flutter of flimsy wings
Butterfly Research Centre in Bhimtal boasts 3,500 butterfly and moth specimens
SIMILAR STATES, DIFFERENT BATTLES
The Congress seems to have the edge in Telangana while in Andhra Pradesh, Chandrababu Naidu and Jagan Mohan Reddy are locked in a bitter battle
A RIDE TO REMEMBER
On board Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s bus as he was attacked
Winning 14 of 17 seats is my target
Anumula Revanth Reddy is on a mission to demonstrate a democratic and egalitarian facet of power and leadership.
LOTUS TAKES ROOT
Buoyed by its slowly growing acceptance among the voters in Tamil Nadu, the BJP is mounting its fiercest offensive ever
BLANK CHECK
Several factors favour an increase in the BJP’s vote share in Kerala, but whether the party can win a seat remains uncertain
CONGRESS HAS A HISTORY OF MAKING ADJUSTMENTS WITH COMMUNAL FORCES
In April 2021, as Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was leading the CPI(M)’s assembly poll campaign to win a second consecutive term, a spirited debate erupted in Kerala over an epithet that party workers had bestowed on him.
POLL PLOT
Congress hopes its five guarantees’ will blunt BJP’s aggressive push
MODI'S GUARANTEES REMAIN IN SPEECHES, MY GUARANTEES ARE FULFILLED
The transformation is unmissable. The old-school mass leader Siddaramaiah has suddenly switched into the new avatar of a master strategist.