Sita Sings the Blues is an animated film ( http://www.sitasingstheblues.com ) , a modern rendering of  Ramayana as a musical cartoon.  Running through the movie  is also a slice of autobiography, Nina Paley’s own. Her husband went to India and finally dumped her. Nina worked out her rage and grief through the story of Sita, the symbol of the loving dutiful wife abandoned by her husband for no just cause. Past and present, contemporary American reality and Hindu myth mingle together seamlessly.      

I have one word to sum up the film --- delightful!

The film begins with a deity – the way it is portrayed it can be either Vishnu or Lakshmi, though later shots lead to the conclusion it is Lakshmi ---  dancing on the waters while a peacock plays an old-fashioned record player.  At any rate it was enjoyable greatly. In an ordinary film this would have been just vulgar, but due to animation effect Laxmi swaying her hips to Jazz is just funny. The story proper is narrated by three shadowy characters --- Indonesian shadow puppet cutouts --- who try to remember the story as best as they could; it was so long ago after all! They amusingly bicker about who is who and why people behaved as they did. To enable non-hindu viewers who are unfamiliar with either India or the story, they  use maps and captions to point out different areas mentioned in Ramayana.  in the Rajasthani miniature painting style. The animations help to carry out the story in a lively manner.  They also introduce various characters and the gods. Interestingly Nina uses three layers of animation. One is comic strip version with rough and ready strokes; another is realistic and brightly coloured pictures reminiscent of Amar Chitra Katha pictures and glossy calendars; third is

The film is crammed with delightful scenes that make it so memorable.  For example, the picture of the cat jumping up and down on Nina’s face, the puppets drawing teeth and moustaches on Ravana to portray him as a villain, the lotuses blooming on Sita’s cheeks when Suparnakha describes her to Ravana, the Earth goddess portrayed  with a globe for her stomach, the stick figure rakshashas and rakshashis complete with the maniacal laughter of Hindi villains, use of Devnagri script to write ‘Whump!’ as the monkeys hit the rakshas, the puppets imagining Sita festooned with jewellery which she throws down to mark her path to Lanka, an intermission where the characters go off to have drinks and snacks --- all portray a great sense of humour. Hanuman in particular was superb --- his walk is always a dance and he always has a smiley face.  Naturally, the whole story is not told in details --- for example Lakshmana in the forest is entirely left out.

Last update : 16-03-2009 11:20

Keywords : Sita Sings the Blues, Nina Paley, Papia Mitra, Rama, Hindu, myth

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