Dear Master Film Review, by lasynch

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lasynch

who was fortunate to know S. N. Bose as a young person and be inspired by him

Review of Dear Master, a film directed by Subha Das Mollick

Who is my Master?  This is a question that many people think about, at different times of their lives, in various circumstances.  It is of paramount importance and shapes our lives in a real way, for better or for worse.

The title (Dear Master) of the movie about S. N. Bose and Albert Einstein originates from the way Bose began several letters that he wrote to Einstein.  In 1924 and 1925 he wrote three papers (the last one was never published and no manuscript remains) on quantum statistics - the first of these papers is the most celebrated, and made scientific history; it is the topic of many books, articles and papers ever since it was written a hundred years ago.  

The movie is very instructive in that a lot of it is focused on the scientific issues that were so important right at the initiation of quantum theory, in the first quarter of the twentieth century.  It is beautifully composed and synthesized, with excellent explanations of the physics and mathematics that so many scientific luminaries were grappling with at that time.  A major theme emerges when we realize that a young professor in a new university in a colonized land makes a major discovery while trying to teach his students about the nature  of blackbody radiation.  Teaching and research are inseparably intertwined.

Bose regarded Einstein as his Master in scientific matters, and continued to regard him in this fashion for over thirty years, until Einstein passed away.  At the same time, it is also true that he realized how Einstein's attitude towards his subsequent papers changed and evolved into silence or even disapproval and disagreement on certain issues.  The favor of the Master tapered off, and it is likely that Bose understood this transformation as part of the human element of their relationship.  There seems little doubt that Bose's acute perceptive nature missed any of these aspects.  The student attempted to develop and grow as a scientist in the eyes of his Master, but the Master did not regard it as his responsibility to nurture and nourish his disciple.  

The movie does not deal directly with this difficult issue in a relationship that was fraught with the politics of science and  a difference in cultures of the people involved.  Bose was an unknown young scientist from a colonized land and people, yearning for recognition and guidance.  Einstein, already a Nobel laureate and of enormous stature in science, recognized the brilliance of Bose's work and the support it leant to his own earlier ideas.  He used the work of Bose to write his own brilliant papers without consulting or disclosing them to his "student."  

Bose accepted all this and there is little doubt that he saw exactly what happened but, being a naturally magnanimous person, he felt he was amply recognized for the work he had done.  It was Paul Dirac who coined the word “boson” for particles with integer spin and then referred to their “Bose-Einstein statistics” and thus ensured that Bose would not be forgotten as a scientist.  Bose spent the rest of his scientific life exploring other scientific fields.  These explorations are largely forgotten today, and made little impact on science compared to his first 1924 paper that Einstein translated and sent for publication.

Bose's lifelong achievement, not quantifiable in terms of results, accolades and recognitions (which he certainly received) was that he lived a generous and beautiful life in the community and country he was born in, and was a very positive influence on the lives of many young students and friends who regarded him as their Master.  In this sense, Bose's Master (Einstein) could have learned a lot from his "student"  but was unable to, perhaps because of his own cultural influences and personal characteristics.  As my own teacher and mentor (Leonard Mandel) used to say,  "Idols have clay feet."  
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The movie provides a perspective of science and its development through unexpected channels, tracing the history of quantum science through the lives of two very different and unique individuals.