The Shape of Water | Directed by Guillermo del Toro | Starring Sally Hawkins, Octavia Spencer, Michael Shannon
My Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
The night has dropped by. I have said hello. She has settled on my window sill. The moon is invisible from my meagre window. But I am drunk. A little. Or may be not. I mean not little drunk. Alexandre Desplat is melodiously here too, talking to me from my music speakers –
You’ll Never Know Just How Much I Miss You,
You’ll Never Know Just How Much I Care,
Yes, perhaps. No one in the world knows how far a person in love feels the pangs of longing and emotion inside her than the person herself. The bittersweet pain finds the deepest seat in the pit and refuses to leave. Being in love. Oh that all-encompassing, all-devastating feeling! In Desplat’s hymn, it simmers and bubbles and boils over within Elisa – the mute janitor in Guillermo del Toro’s ‘The Shape of Water’. She falls for an amphibian man; a sea animal to the ordinary eyes, ‘the asset’ to the scientists and military honchos of America. But to her eyes? Oh to her eyes – he was like a sunshine on a cold morning, a fresh bloom in an abandoned garden, a rhapsody in a silent room, a shoulder in a lonely world. He, was life.
Love needs no validation, no endorsement, no explanation. It is immense enough to survive on its own. Who knows what propels it? Oh but if you are in love, you would know; you would need no telling. You would be empowered – with a look, a kiss, a touch, a hug, a promise, a memory. And so was Elisa. She collided with the high and mighty for her love, she played with fire and bellowed serenity for her love, she did the unthinkable and collapsed for her love, she was resuscitated and granted a fresh lease of life for her love.
In del Toro’s sublime love story, I sunk, along with Elisa and her love, into the underwater bliss, kissing the world a temporary goodbye. And when I emerged, I embraced love a little tighter. You see, love changes you. And since change is inevitable, I would rather be changed by love than by anything else.
Desplat is still stirring my soul with his earnest touches on the harp and accordion. And lyrics which I don’t completely understand; some of them are in French. And yet, I feel the night in this part of India is completely in its awe. I, too, am. And I shall do nothing to break this trance, except may be, surrender without restraint.
Mr. Guillermo del Toro, Ms. Sally Hawkins, Ms. Octavia Spencer, Mr. Alexandre Desplat and the entire team of ‘The Shape of Water’ – Thank you for reiterating for me what was always up on the wall. And getting me a little more drunk on beauty, for there is no better way to say goodnight.
[Image courtesy fontanelleto.org ]
SEEMITA DAS 