Sajin Shrijith By

Express News Service

It’s only fitting that the central character in 9, a child, is named Adam. The film presents a scenario where mankind is made to experience the beginning of time when electricity hadn’t been invented yet. Triggered by a global cataclysmic event, earth comes under the grip of fear.

One of the things I liked about 9 is that it doesn’t have that Interstellar problem: it gives the audience a sense of the event’s magnitude by including the entire globe, even though most of the film is confined to a single location, and the activity revolving around a few characters.

There is no need to fear, assures Prithviraj’s astrophysicist Albert to a large audience before the event occurs. The sun will rise as usual, but the nights are going to envelop everyone in pitch-black darkness. Your emergency lamp is not going to work. Buy candles, a lot of them. It’s a simple scientific henomenon, Albert informs.

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A supermarket visit is used as an excuse to deliver exposition, something that is best avoided in films like this. In fact, exposition is delivered in the film more than once, and while they occasionally do seem unnecessary, they do a fairly decent job of making us imagine the gravity of the situation. Being a man of science, Albert will experience things that will test his faith in science as well as himself. Expect a night full of terrors.

9 is a film that cannot be confined to a single genre — I counted at least three — and I don’t think I should reveal them so as not to give the slightest hint of the story details. I’m simply going to say that, in terms of scale and concept, 9 is the closest we have come to an M Night Shyamalan film in Malayalam. But it’s not just Shyamalan’s films that 9 reminded me of, but also those of Nicholas Roeg, Roman Polanski, James Cameron, Stanley Kubrick, and even the television series LOST (hello, ‘smoke monster’).

Albert apparently loves his son Adam (Master Alok), but he also appears emotionally distant most of the time, an after-effect no doubt of the demise of Adam’s mother during childbirth. The child is aloof, weird, and has no friends: a fact that constantly bothers Albert. Some of their heated confrontations —and the fact that some characters keep referring to Adam as an ‘evil child’ — brought to mind films like The Omen and The Shining.

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Why is this event happening? What connection does it have to Adam? What are the intentions of the mysterious stranger that suddenly enters their lives? Is there a world beyond the understanding of science? These are some of the questions that 9 tries to answer. I’m not sure it answers all of them, but there’s fun to be found in that. A few logical inconsistencies do show up now and then, but they make sense when placed under the light of the climactic revelations.

Aided strongly by a remarkably gifted cinematographer, Abhinandan Ramanujam, director Jenuse Mohammed uses every cinematic tool at his disposal to deliver a visually dazzling, one-of-a-kind experience that hasn’t been seen in Malayalam cinema before. The film is a testament to the fact that you don’t need to go abroad for photogenic locales. As long as you have someone like Abhinandan on board, you won’t have to worry about getting the right kind of footage.

Also, a big shoutout to composer Sekhar Menon for his Hans Zimmer-style background score, without which the build-up wouldn’t be half as effective — a prerequisite for any thriller, especially one that juggles multiple genres. Tony Luke, who plays a member of Albert’s team, once again displays his talent for sinking into any role.

What Jenuse and team have accomplished with 9 is a superlative audio-visual experience, one that will give different experiences for different people. Barring a few pacing issues in the second half which could be forgiven, 9 certainly deserves a pat on the back for taking that extra mile.

I particularly have a thing for films that end on an ambiguous note, because you discover something new with each subsequent watch. It pleased the mystery fan in me, and I hope more Malayalam filmmakers come forward with such compelling and creatively daring ideas in the near future.