Reading Notes: Overview: Paley. Sita Sings the Blues

I have already been through the online public domain of the Ramayana (parts A, B, C, and D). Therefore, for this weeks reading I watched the video Sita Sings The Blues by Nina Paley. I have to say this was a great little film! I really enjoyed how the creator of the film was able to summarize the Ramayana in a fun and enjoyable manner.

To summarize, the Ramayana begins by contextualizing who the main characters are. We have Rama, Sita, and Rama's enemy Ravana. Rama is exiled from the kingdom by the King Dasharatha. Sita eventually follows Rama into exile where he fights these demons. We then figure out that Ravana is taken with Sita and he kidnaps her. Rama then goes through a journey to find the love of his life and has an epic battle with Ravana, eventually killing him and he wins back Sita. However, Rama is not happy with Sita because she housed with another man. Therefore he is kinda cold to her. To me this is shocking! It wasn't her fault! she was taken by Ravana! Therefore, there is a little tension within their relationship. Sita finds out that she is pregnant and is left in the forest by herself. Sita thinks that all of these hardships are occurring because she was potentially bad in the past life. She eventually has two kids named Lava and Kusha and they learn to sing praises to Rama. And this just about sums up the film. However, Sita sings one more song pertaining to her love for Rama one last time.

Overall again, I believe Nina Paley did a great job portraying the characters of the Ramayana in this film. The film really brought the Ramayana into perspective for me because I was able to put a face to all the characters. This allowed me to relate more to them and understand the struggles of each character. 

Rama and Sita: The Blue Diamond Gallery