9': What does it mean?
Science-fiction or psychological thriller or both?
The author writes down a film or piece of any art, such as poems, and their interpretation belongs to the author and the audience. After it gets watched or read, their understanding belongs to the individual filmgoer or reader also. This aspect is something all of us should remember.
'9', the 2019 Malayalam movie directed by Januse Muhammed Majeed, is one of a kind. Maybe it is the first of the science fiction films in Malayalam that is not petulant. This film does not fall under the sci-fi tag alone; it also falls under the psycho-thriller genre. The film delivers a remarkable visual experience to the viewer. If you are a science geek, I am sure your mind won't allow you to settle unless the questions the movie raises get answered.
The worldview of the film
Albert (Prithviraj) is an astrophysicist who gets inspired by his father to pursue science. His father might have been a science teacher who was fascinated by science. That fascination gets into his son through the special connection that Albert shared with his father. The film's characters are getting ready for a nine-day after effect of a meteor passing near the earth.
The film tries to blend in the mythology of solar eclipses of various religions within the scientific context to perplex the audience. Many religions consider solar eclipses a bad omen; hence, their followers indulge in prayers during that time. There are some facts related to religious superstitions. One of them is during a solar eclipse sun's rays might be more directly coming to earth that it's not wise to watch the phenomenon with naked eyes as it can damage them. The movie depicts this idea in the film's initial minutes, which shows Albert's interaction with his father. The concept is taken further in the film.
In the present day, as a meteor is going to pass near the earth, there is a probability that the magnetic field of the meteor might cause some disturbance in the earth's magnetic field as well. This turbulence can cause blackouts on a global level. The film plays with the idea that it would take nine days for the magnetic field to become normal.
This idea is a half-baked truth but blends well with the film's narrative building. Albert and his son, Adam, end up in the Himalayas as part of Albert's scientific expedition for nine days. Albert and Adam have had a strained relationship since his wife died giving birth to Adam. Although Albert doesn't blame Adam and loves Adam very much, his subconscious is still in grief over his wife's death that he is disturbed. The situation is made grave by his in-laws, who blame Adam for their daughter Annie's death. An unfortunate accident involving Adam and his cousin in which the latter lost his legs added fuel to the fire. Albert is struggling with his grief and his troublesome son while working overtime in his passion called science.
The three hypotheses
In the Himalayas, after Albert witnesses the once-in-a-century spectacle, and unbeknownst to the viewers, Albert loses his mind's balance. Then the red wolf and Eva come to the scene. Albert takes a part of the meteor stone with him. In my opinion, we can consider three hypotheses for what is happening in the movie:
- Eva was real: Dr. Inayat Khan hasn't seen Eva and the handful of people who can prove her existence is all bedridden and unable to clarify her presence. The only hope is Adam, and the film ends abruptly before his answer to the riddle. Albert was wrongly implicated in all the incidents. At the same time, Eva and the red wolf were extraterrestrial entities who wanted to bring chaos on earth by driving away love, care, and trust. Eva reiterates in the climax scene that her main aim is to destroy the love that humans have for each other. Eva chose Albert-a chief scientist, for this plan because he enjoys reputable fame and recognition to help Eva's cause. If Albert's mind can be made nihilistic, his influence can do the rest of the job of making the nihilism spread to other humans.
- The extraterrestrial aspect: This might be a test done by extraterrestrial beings to check the strength of the human bonds through love. Eva was the chosen one to experiment with manipulating the mind of a sophisticated but disturbed human being like Albert into killing his son. Eva might have been from another galaxy. She might be a higher form of life whose civilization is too advanced to feel emotions that they wanted to learn what or how emotions work. They chose lower life form humans for the experiment. This interpretation rules out the possibility of Albert being a bipolar schizophrenic or having multiple personality disorder. He was not the culprit.
- Eva was not real: Eva, red wolf, and the meteor piece are all part of Albert's hallucinations. Albert's other personality, Eva, is created by Albert's mind to cope with Annie's absence, anger, and subconscious hatred towards Adam. Eva was behind all the assaults. Eva wanted Adam to be part of the fantasy, but Adam rebelled hence the urge to kill Adam. As it disturbed the earth's magnetic field, the meteor imbalanced Albert's mind by its radiation. While all other people sought refuge in their shelters indulged in prayers, Albert- an atheist- watched the spectacle without any protective gear with his naked eyes. The meteor's or the comet's radiation disoriented his mind.
At the end of the film, Albert overcame whatever problems he had; this means that Albert overcame the influence of the extraterrestrials, or his mind might have snapped out of its delusion by the unconditional love of a father towards his son. The final credits throw in some light, by which I would make my fourth hypothesis.
The fourth hypothesis
The final credits show a cave painting that depicts people (probably the indigenous tribes of the Himalayas) witnessing the red meteor. After which, they see the red wolf and start fighting with each other—their war results in mass killings with a creature like Eva rising between them. The red line caused by the meteor is visible in the painting.
Remember when Eva said: 'How beautiful is the red trail left by the meteor as if another dimension opens itself.'
In the climax, when she says: 'At first we were also like humans…' this makes me assume that Eva was real, but these extraterrestrials are like ghosts that can possess people and manipulate their minds. The extraterrestrial (Eva) is aware of Albert's vulnerable mind due to their advanced intelligence, and it decides to take over Albert's mind.
And whatever sinister acts Eva did were done by the possessed Albert. 'I am within your mind..', Eva says, meaning she is controlling him. Albert sees Annie's apparition after Eva leaves, which is Albert's intuition showing him where Adam was.
The film seems to be playing with the idea of merging science and spirituality. In Manichitrathazhu film, Thilakan says a ghost possesses Shobana while Mohanlal says she has multiple personality disorder. Although their interpretations are similar, they were contradictory. Thilakan symbolizes religion, and Mohanlal represents science. These are different states of the human mind, and there is a rational explanation for everything.
Adam's answer
In my interpretation, what Adam- the future astrobiologist- is going to say or might be going to write after many years is that,
'Albert was behind all the assaults on different people, but he was not in control. Dr. Inayat khan was right, Albert was deranged, but his disturbed mind made his body an easy target of an entity that might be alien in origin. The acts that Albert's body did were not of his mind but the entity.
The idea of the entity was to prove that fear, grief, or anger (negative emotions) destroys love quickly and that love is an irrelevant emotion. There's no point in the human bond made of love. That entity tried to kill a man's child with its own hands but failed in front of a father's unconditional love for his son. Who knows, maybe all the people whom science calls people with schizophrenia and spirituality calls possessed are the same. Either can be true or perhaps schizophrenia or possessed are synonyms in this context. I, Adam, although a scientist, doesn't want to believe that my father was mad and was behind all the sinister happenings during the nine days. It gives me peace in the belief that he was possessed by an alien. When he tried to kill me, I saw his eyes; it was different. I again saw them during the incidents that happened in the Buddhist monastery. I know what I saw, and it was not Albert.'
The film is available in Disney-Hotstar.
