And the Oscar goes to...

This year’s 90th Academy Awards were as scintillating as ever with several interesting movies vying for their rightful spot in the limelight. Amongst all awards, the most looked forward was the “Best Picture” award, which had several interesting movies lined up for the honours, including ‘Darkest Hour’, ‘Dunkirk’, ‘Phantom Thread’, ‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’, ‘Get Out’, ‘The Shape of Water’, ‘The Post’, ‘Call Me by Your Name’ and ‘Lady Bird’.

While the nominations were several, many pinned hopes on the movie ‘Get Out’, some anticipated ‘The Post’ and a few others ‘Dunkirk’ to grab the honours, much to the surprise it was ‘The Shape of Water’ that stole the Golden Man amidst a thunderous applause in “Best Picture” category.

The flick ranked at the top probably for its unique storyline, which keeps in stride with the Hollywood’s current trend of shooting movies with the story set in the background of mid and late 20th century; examples of these are ‘American Made’ and ‘The Post’ both of which garnered respectable global audiences.

A sort of sci-fi film, ‘The Shape of Water’s storyline is typically from the 1950s. It’s a capricious fable that involves a mute woman’s relationship with an underwater manlike amphibian. Hawkins, who donned the role of “Eliza”, was quite a performer. Her character, as the mute housekeeper for a laboratory, audaciously steps away from the routine, beaten-down track and brings powerfully to fore her performance skills. Octavia Spencer, who dons the role of Eliza’s colleague “Zelda”, has also put on a show that simply can’t go unnoticed.

The magic that worked for the flick is probably the anomaly of subterranean amphibian with supernatural powers forming the nucleus of the story. That apart, the heroine’s acting and her bravado in strategising a release and smuggling the “Amphibian” out of the secure laboratory adds a further twist to the story. This slow-paced movie, yet an intriguing one, capture sensitive side of the audiences.

The movie characters are all of different nature. There are peculiarities to every one of them. While Giles is a gay man; Eliza, a mute person; Hoffstetler, a spy in the guise of an American doctor, and Richard Strickland, the villain, an arrogant, egoistic person who believes in dancing to his own beat. In other circumstances, one could easily understand, these individuals wouldn’t stay for one day under the same roof. But the way they are juxtaposed against each other – it’s a blend that further ups the ante on the quixotic nature of the movie.

The relationship between the amphibian and the mute lady is nothing short of appalling. The western world might think it to be natural, definitely, it would be asking too much from its oriental counterpart. However, going by the box office faring and rave reviews by the critics, it’s a picture that seems to have firmly made its space in numerous hearts of the cine-goers. Add to it the haunting music score that evokes intriguing interest all through. Watching this movie, one can easily note the distinct touch of class in its background score.

Directed by Guillermo del Toro, who has several other renowned hits under his belt like ‘Pacific Rim’, ‘The Devil’s Backbone’, and ‘Hell Boy’, has ably directed this movie that has shot him into the hall of fame and won him appreciation all over again. All in all, ‘The Shape of Water’ has won four awards, including the much-coveted award – ‘Best Picture’.

By: Daniel Indrupati