9 (2019 film)

9 (or Nine) is a 2019 Indian Malayalam-language science fiction horror thriller film written and directed by Jenuse Mohamed. It was jointly produced by Prithviraj Productions and SPE Films India, and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. The film stars Prithviraj Sukumaran in the lead role, with Prakash Raj, Mamta Mohandas, Wamiqa Gabbi, and Master Alok in other important roles. The film marks the first regional Indian film production and distribution of Sony Pictures and the debut of Prithviraj Productions.

In the film, a global crisis arises when a comet passes very close to the Earth for 9 days. How this affects astrophysicist Albert Lewis and his son Adam's life forms the story. 9 was released in India and Gulf Cooperation Council territories on 7 February 2019..

Plot
Dr. Albert Lewis is a widowed [Astrophysicist]] living with his son Adam. A comet from an unknown galaxy is projected to pass beside Earth which will cause a huge Electromagnetic pulse (EMP) surge and is predicted to be lasting 9 days. Albert's mentor Dr. Inayat Khan asks him to conduct research about the comet and sends him to the Himalayas. Inayat also says to Albert that this incident is long portrayed by the locals over there and their caves have drawing of the comet with its earlier and future occurrences. Albert, with his colleagues and son, goes to the Himalayas for the research and Albert and Adam opts to stay at the cottage with a janitor (Hakka) to assist them.

On Albert's first viewing of the passing comet, he meets Eva, and brings her home. Adam gets friendly with her. Though Hakka is suspicious. Though Eva as a guest lingers around Albert. Adam finds out that there is something peculiar about Eva. It appears that Eva is some kind of an extraterrestrial entity that haunts on tragic memories and their causes and came along with the comet.

As it happens, Albert believes Adam is the cause of his separation with wife. The entity feeds on this and targets Adam. Meanwhile, Albert meets with monks of a monastery and tries to understand the comet more. The alien entity reveals its true colors to Adam, Divya, a colleague of Albert's, and Hakka. These all happens unbeknownst to Albert. Adam tries to communicate the facts he knows about Eva to Albert. But Albert does not believe any of it and considers it to be pretext of some repressed Adam's fear.

Eventually on one night, Eva subdues Albert as Annie, his long lost wife and asks Albert to hand Adam over to her as he is the one who ended up splitting them two. Albert prevails and pushes away Eva and runs to save Adam. They drive away from the cottage to move away from Eva and any potential harm. Albert hands-over Adam to Sandeep and goes back to the cottage to confront Eva and put an end to all of this. Though he does not find her there. As night approaches, Adam suggest to Sandeep to take him to the monastry. Enroute Sandeep is attacked by Eva and Adam seeks refuge amongst a local tribe whose premises are protected by enchantments. In the night Albert comes and takes Adam with him and Adam wakes just in time to run away from danger. Albert follows but is knocked out by Eva.

Albert wakes up in and meets Inayat who discloses that it was not Eva that created all the havoc, but Albert. He went through a psychotic break and was on a spell of dissociative identity disorder. It was Albert who was being Eva. Inayat asks whereabouts about Adam who is missing, Albert attempts to find where his son is and approaches the monastery, they ask him to retrace back through his memories because there is time. Albert retraces the footsteps from the night before and ends up finding Eva. After conversing with her in terms of his love to Adam, she transfigures into Annie and points him to a direction. Albert reaches at the cave with paintings which Khan mentioned that an ancient depiction of the arrival of the comet and in local tribes understanding a demon. As he finds Adam there alone and safe, he becomes happy. Albert reconciles with Adam and asks whether Eva was real or not. During the mid credits, there is a scene inside the cave that Albert finds Adam, inside the cave there are paintings, that are drawn by the tribes, of the last comet arrival depicting the incident happened 2000 years ago, at last camera focus on a painting that resembles Eva and leaving the final conclusion Eva was real.

Cast

 * Prithviraj Sukumaran as Dr. Albert Lewis
 * Master Alok as Adam
 * Prakash Raj as Dr. Inayat Khan
 * Wamiqa Gabbi as Eva
 * Mamta Mohandas as Annie
 * Tony Luke as Sandeep Murthy
 * Vishal Krishna as Young Albert
 * Rahul Madhav as James
 * Adil Ibrahim as Doctor Rahul,Albert's friend

Development
On 6 November 2016, The Times of India reported that Jenuse Mohamed is set to direct an untitled science fiction horror thriller film written by himself, with Prithviraj Sukumaran signed to play the lead role. Confirming the project to the news-daily, Mohamed said that they are hoping to start filming after March 2017 and the film will be mostly shot in Himachal Pradesh and in Kerala for the remaining portion, also adding Parvathy and Nithya Menen would be acting beside Prithviraj (both later replaced). In March 2018, Prithviraj announced that the film, titled 9, will be jointly produced by his newly formed production house Prithviraj Productions in partnership with Sony Pictures. The film was reportedly scheduled to begin filming on the following month. 9 marks the debut of Prithviraj Productions and the first regional Indian film of Sony Pictures.

Jenuse wrote the complete screenplay of 9 within a week. He approached Prithviraj in 2016. Prithviraj initially signed the film as an actor and producing the film was not in his mind, but later when he decided to launch a production house with his wife Supriya Menon, they chose 9 as their debut production. Its pre-production began in 2017.

Filming
Principal photography began on 9 April 2018 in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. Filming also took place in Kochi. Shooting schedule in Kerala was completed on 18 April. Final scenes in this schedule was shot at Kuttikkanam hill station in Idukki district. Abinandhan Ramanujam was the cinematographer. High precision movie camera was required for filming as almost 60 percent of the film was to be shot at night. Beginning from its second schedule in Manali, Himachal Pradesh, the Red Gemini 5K camera was used for filming, in its debut use in Indian cinema. Producer Supriya booked an entire hotel in Manali for filming. The team completed shooting in Spiti Valley by June 2018. Filming was wrapped in Delhi where a song sequence was shot. Principal photography was completed in 48 days. Major part of filming took place in Manali and Spiti Valley. It took more than six months for post-production. Production of the film was completed at a cost lower than the estimated budget.

Soundtrack
The film features background score composed by Sekhar Menon and two songs composed by Shaan Rahman. It was released by Sony Music.

Release
9 was released in India and Gulf Cooperation Council territories on 7 February 2019 by Sony Pictures Releasing. The film received positive reviews from critics.