90 Seconds

Directed by Hariom Mehta

Starring: Naishadh Lakhani, Sanjay Deshani

Year: 2019

Country: India

Review Author: Roberto Matteucci

Click Here for Italian Version

The playwright Bertolt Brecht, in the book Life of Galileo, distinguishes and humanizes the meaning of the hero. Heroism has always been linked to the myth of the Greek demigods. Brecht evicts them from Mount Olympus to situate them to the seventeenth century in Italy. It was a time of war, conflict. At the time it was dangerous to express ideas and studies, even if they were true. It is complicated to be a hero in front of an Inquisition court. 

Thus, the scientist Galileo abjured his idea of earth no longer at the centre of the world.

Others behaved contrary. Many refused to abjure, and they were sentenced to the stake, like Giordano Bruno.

Bertolt Brecht resolutely expressed the two theories.

Andrea is a student, young, idealist, adores Galileo.

The master is instead a mature man, he knows the life and the obstacles to face.

The German novelist wrote:

"ANDREA: Unhappy is the land that breeds no hero."

GALILEO: Unhappy the land that needs a hero." (1)

The Indian director Hariom Mehta combines both theses in the short film 90 Seconds.

The world needs heroes, the problem is that they are few.

"Everyone is a hero": if all were heroes, the Marxist utopia as interpreted by Brecht, would be the winner. Only then would the heroes be superfluous and useless. 

"A small boy can be a hero."

To be a hero it is necessary to be pure, innocent, angelic. In the film 90 Seconds, the hero is a cute small boy, with big and smart eyes. He does not have the experience of an elder so the failures did not make him cynical. The child can be a symbol and teach us existential values. The allegory chosen by the author is an uncomplicated object, not even expensive, but fundamental to save people when are in danger.

The first scene, medium-shot. A handsome boy rides motorbike. He probably goes to work because he is formally dressed. But he has no helmet. All motorcyclists are helmetless. Cut, long angle shot. The red traffic light stopped the traffic. The light comes from the sky, it is a sunny day. The young man looks at his watch.

Cut, a child runs on the sidewalk, approaches the young man on a motorcycle. 

Long angle shot, the small boy touches his pants, asks for coins. The motorbiker gives him a banknote.

The child is happy. Shot from behind, he comes back home hopping.

Dissolve cut, in a refined dark shot the child inserts the banknote into a large money box, everything is black.

This elegant and significant sequence is repeated several times. It is an event like in many countries, a person asks charity at an intersection.

What could a kid buy with money collected on the street? Desserts? Ice creams? Candies? Toys?

In the last shot, there is the interpretation of the gesture.

One day the motorcyclist arrives at the traffic lights. But the child is not there. He goes down and looks around, but there is not.

Cut. The boy is arriving, films from behind, he is cheerful, joyful. He brings a gift for him: it is a splendid, new black helmet.

He bought it with money saved.

The motorbiker wears it and leaves while the child watches him satisfied. The hero realizes his action both as a physical gesture and as an example.

Hariom Mehta in 90 Seconds describes how humanity desires positive models.

The film's realism is mitigated by simple extradiegetic music. An easy, harmonious melody with the same rhythm. There are no diegetic noises, the road does not produce sounds.

Hariom Mehta wrote: "You, Me, and Everyone can be the drivers of this change through our small steps towards the betterment of our society."

He narrates it with organised, clear scenes. He chooses with intelligence the light, alternating with the darkness of the introduction of money. The shots are few, almost always in the medium-shot. The choice is appropriate because it limits the frame, and makes it universal. Because the story does not have a local characterization but absolute.

The editing is correctly performed with precise cheat cuts.

The constant soundtrack and the street mise-en-scene create an intense and humane cinematographic message in just a few seconds.

The director is skilled in choosing the child and working of his personality. We ignore the reason for his behaviour, why he wants to save strangers and why that one. He is not a beggar, he does not want money for himself. He is clean, polite, he is not a child of Italian neorealism, he is, for the author, a small hero.

1. Bertolt Brecht, Life of Galileo in the volume I capolavori, Einaudi, Turin, 1998