A film about the Indian mathematics genius is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video. Here are five facts to get you more familiar. Credit... Amazon Prime Video Shakuntala Devi (1929-2013) was best known as "the human computer" for her ability to perform lengthy calculations in her head, swiftly. One example of this, described in her New York Times obituary, took place in 1977, at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, where she extracted the 23rd root of a 201-digit number in 50 seconds. It took a Univac computer 62 seconds to do the same. Now, her life story has inspired the Hindi-language film "Shakuntala Devi, " streaming on Amazon Prime Video. Starring the veteran Bollywood actress Vidya Balan as Devi, the film is directed by Anu Menon and tells the story of Devi's life from the perspective of her daughter, Anupama Banerji. Played by Sanya Malhotra, Banerji was involved in the making of the film. Here are five facts about Devi you may not know. 1. Devi holds the Guinness World Record for "Fastest Human Computation. "
By 1950, she was touring Europe. There, on October 5, 1950 2, the famous broadcast journalist Leslie Mitchell hosted a special programme with her at the BBC, where she solved mathematical and calendric problems on air. However, at one point, her answer was at odds with the BBC's and she disputed the numbers. After some verification, Mitchell admitted that "she was right and the BBC wrong! " Even this newfound celebrity, however, was a mixed bag. By 1952, her whirlwind tour landed her in the US. But media attention was sparse, and she felt the pressure of being her family's sole breadwinner. She saved paltry sums from her 'performances' for herself and sent the rest home. Her meals at local cafeterias, she recalled later, were "soups" made of water mixed with free ketchup. § Mental calculators have existed at least since the 18th century. A popular misconception about them is that they are all autistic savants. As the book ' The Great Mental Calculators ' (1983) explains, such savants are the exception, not the rule.
With the world at her feet, was the gifted and prosperous Shakuntala Devi allowed to have it all? This is a question that seemingly only women have to grapple with, and comes down to a woman's ability to flourish in both personal and professional aspects of her world. The new Anu Menon biopic Shakuntala Devi: Human Computer (released straight to Amazon Prime due to coronavirus) stars Vidya Balan in the titular role and depicts Devi's life, from her childhood into adulthood, through the lens of her relationship with her daughter Anu, which draws this question into sharp focus. Photo: Everett Collection Midway through the film, the greatest tension between characters is borne out of a sequence in which the newlywed Shakuntala Devi decides that the one thing missing in her life is motherhood. She desperately wishes to get pregnant but after giving birth, Devi expects to return back to her normal on-the-go life. Her husband is supportive of this arrangement and Devi is ecstatic…until she hears that her daughter's first word is the equivalent of "dad. "
The movie finds funny ways of dramatising the process whereby one generation of women squares its frustrations with another – but it adds up to spirited, intelligent, authentically feminist entertainment.
Story: A biographical drama on the life of Shakuntala Devi, the renowned mathematician, whose astounding skills of solving complex math problems in record time won her admiration and awe, the world over. Review: 'Shankuntala Devi' not only explores the mathematician's fascinating relationship with numbers but her relationships beyond it as well – especially her life as a mother and a woman. If Shankuntala Devi's intriguing journey which started off as a three-year-old solving difficult math problems and doing her own shows across schools was not remarkable enough – her fearless and independent spirit as a young woman in the 1950's, who lived by her own rules adds to her dazzling persona. One which she fiercely protects through every stage of her life. 'Why should I be normal, when I can be amazing? ' Shakuntala Devi (Vidya Balan) asks her daughter Anupama (Sanya Malhotra), when during a skirmish the later questions why she can't be a 'normal' mother. As the film takes us through Shakuntala Devi's life, it becomes obvious that while her equation with numbers was seamless, her personal equations often ended up being miscalculated.
Menon and Nayanika Mahtani's screenplay jumps back and forth in time distractingly, muddying rather than clarifying the emotional journeys. Ishita Moitra's dialogue is done no favours by Balan throwing her head back and laughing in every scene. Shakuntala's catchphrase is "Vidya kasam ", a meta-reference which, even if drawn from real life, should have been avoided. The early parts of the film, when Shakuntala is just becoming famous, are a slalom course of bad accents and flat humour. "Joke also Indian man in dhoti with stick, " Shakuntala tells someone who comments on her pigtails. Joke also writing this simplistic. Shakuntala Devi does allow its protagonist room to be selfish and shallow along with kooky and brilliant, but all the deep-seated emotional trauma is handled in a manner that's hurried and facile. At a gathering to promote her book about homosexuality, Shakuntala says she grew interested in the subject because her ex-husband is gay. When Anu asks her how she can lie like that, she says that personal stories sell better and a little embellishment doesn't hurt.
However, Devi herself often grappled with making sense and use of her abilities, and her life is marked by a quest for discovering, and asserting, her own humanity. She was a child prodigy. At three, her parents noticed her flair for calculation as she played with cards. By five, she could compute cube roots in her mind. Soon, she began to deliver public performances and appeared on radio shows as well. But early fame exacted a heavy toll. "I wanted to improve my abilities, publish books on mathematics, and win fame, " she said in a 1950 interview to Times of India. But "fellow students in my college would not concede that I was gifted… I got very much disgusted with life … and sought refuge in the Vyasaraya Mutt. … I wanted to renounce the world and become a sanyasini. " However, her spiritual journey ended in only a week when she "left the mutt again to get entangled in this worldly bondage". An advertisement that appeared in Times of India in 1981. Photo: Times of India She spent her youth crisscrossing India and showcasing her calculating abilities.