Christopher Nolan's new film 'Oppenheimer', featuring actor Cillian Murphy in the lead role, tells the story of the father of the atomic bomb, Robert J Oppenheimer. This is a story of a brilliant, ambitious, and flawed man, who was involved with one of the most momentous events of the 20th century. For the unversed, 'Oppenheimer' is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book 'American Prometheus' by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin. The physicist and polymath, Oppenheimer was familiar with the Sanskrit language and religious Hindu scriptures, including the Bhagavad Gita, as he was with quantum mechanics. In fact, in a recent interview actor Cillian Murphy revealed that he too read the Bhagavad Gita in order to prepare for his role in the film.
Giving more insight about the man that Oppenheimer was, here's an excerpt from the book 'American Prometheus' about his interest in Sanskrit and the Bhagavad Gita. This excerpt is published with permission from Atlantic Books.
