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Recently
I had a chance to watch a screening of Sita Sing’s The
Blues, an animated perspective of the Indian epic the
Ramayana. The movie cuts between the lives of Nina Paley
during her breakup, the Ramayana, animated sections of Sita
singing, and finally three paper-cut out narrators who
explain aspects of Indian culture. The parallels of the two
stories are only interrupted by Sita singing the blues and
the narrators explaining aspects of Indian mythology. The
story is essentially a vision of Sita’s ordeal through the
lens of the artist who at the same time is going through her
own ordeal.
For
those who do not know, the Ramayana is one of two
important Indian epic tales which most Indians know. In
India there are many cartoons and interpretations of this
movie which feature Rama as the main character. An
interesting concept in this version is that the focus is on
Sita, Rama’s wife, and not Rama himself. The section of the
Ramayana that is featured in this movie is the
chapter when the demon King, Ravana steals Sita away,
bringing Rama on a quest to rescue her.
When Rama finally defeats Ravana however, Rama does not
embrace Sita and instead rejects her saying that she is
unpure, having lived in another mans home. In order to prove
her “purity” she submits to a trial by fire. By being
rescued by the gods she is able to prove her fidelity. Yet
Rama constantly questions this fidelity and finally ends up
banishing her from the kingdom even though she is pregnant
with his twins. The movie ends when Sita, tired of Rama’s
questioning, throws herself back into the womb of the Earth
as a symbol of her purity to Rama.
While
the story has been around for thousands of years imagined in
the eyes of thousands of authors, this particular
incarnation is one of the few made for American eyes. Using
music, animation, and funny narrative dialogue, the movie is
easily understood and is acceptable by American audiences.
The best part of the movie in fact could be the dialogue
between the narrators who try and explain the different
elements of Indian culture from names to gods. Overall the
movie itself was interesting, exciting to watch, hilarious,
and best of all for those who missed it - it is free for
watching and downloading on the artists webpage.
Unfortunately what you won't get that definitely enhanced
the experience is meeting the director. Meeting Meeting Nina
Paley at the event gave you the opportunity to see how
direct the translation has been from reality to movie. When
you meet the director you realize that the main character of
the movie is essentially her and has been drawn to show this
from her frizzy hair to her sweater.
The story is easily put into perspective when you meet her
and ask her about why she decided to create this movie. She
just responds that she saw parallels between her and Sita,
that even over three thousand years, relationships are
complicated and are filled with problems which cannot always
be solved. From her talk we can see how she has come to
create the character of Sita from her own relationships -
showing how relationships transverse time and culture,
reaching three thousand years into the future and in another
country.
http://www.sitasingstheblues.com/
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