MovieViews- Sita Sings the Blues Review

"The Greatest Break-Up Story Ever Told"

Hello Film Fanatics and Reviewers alike. This is my first movie review and I'd like to start with something a little bit different. Over the course of the summer, I heard of this tiny Indian animated movie called Sita Sings the Blues and was intrigued by the animation I've seen clips on. I am a fan of unconventional styles of animation (meaning anything outside of Disney and 3D animated films); one of my favorite films of all time is Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis (which if you haven't seen look it up). So I finally found the film, but didn't get the chance to watch it until now. So now, my own thoughts and feelings on Nina Paley's Sita Sings the Blues. 

The Review

Sita Sings the Blues is an independent, animated film covering stories from the Ramayana, the Sanskrit epic about a banished prince named Rama and his beautiful and coveted wife, Sita, and also the divorce of Nina Paley and her husband. These two stories run parallel to each other and teach lessons derived from these stories about love, loss, and sacrifice. As these stories are being told, there are interludes from three Indian shadow puppets providing background information and comical insights on the stories and also musical snippets by the late blues singer, Annette Sanshaw, that progress the story of Rama and Sita. Voices are provided by Indian voice actors, namely Anseem Chhabra, Bhavana Nagulapally, and Manish Acharya as the shadow puppet narrators. Nina Paley directed and provided the animations to all segments and stories and it is fantastic work! The different styles she portrays is beautiful and the interesting choice of playing 1920's blues in an Indian story works well with the quirky animations. The stories are deep and portray feelings and doubts we have with every relationship, even when it takes place in Hindu mythology.

The plot is just as was described in the last paragraph. Taking out all the mythical stories, magic, and gods, the whole movie can be summed up as a "break-up story". In the Ramanyana part of the film, Sita's fidelity is challenged by her husband, Rama, after she is kidnapped by the evil king, Ravana. She is pure and loving to her husband and through all the trials put against her, she remains faithful and gave birth to his twin sons. However, Rama is still firm in believing her infidelity and continues to push her away in anger. Running parallel to this story is Nina Paley's divorce. It starts where her husband leaves for India on a business trip and he creates excuses to stay in the country and prolonging his trip back home to his wife. Nina soon follows him and what begins the downhill spiral of their marriage. As previously stated, shadow puppets are seen between the segments telling the history of the Ramayana and give their own insights and tellings of the stories. This can be argued as filler, but the shadow puppets are educational to viewers new to Hinduism.

The acting is rather flat when it comes to the stories. When the actors are speaking, their tone is flat and its evident they are reading lines, but I believe this is intentional to make the scenes appear to come directly from the book. The shadow puppets, however, have an extemporaneous form of speech. Half the dialogue seems to come from their own minds as if they are remembering the stories and not reading them from a book; it is more intimate and you feel that a story is actually being told. Overall the acting was average, but passable for the style of the film. This movie is more visual heavy and music plays key here

I cannot stress enough of how beautiful the animation is in this film.  The styles change with the stories with classical Indian art with the narrative and shadow puppet portions of the film and simplistic cartoons for Nina's story and the musical segments. The animation separates the two stories, but at the same time works cohesively for the film as they tell the same lessons. The music is split between two genres: Indian and 1920's blues. Annette Hanshaw is the singer during Sita's "monologues". Her voice is sultry, but at the same time sad and full of want which matches Sita's mood and personality. There is one segment which doesn't make sense, but it's visually interesting. There is no plot, but it features Indian dancers and bright colors flashing along with traditional Hindu instruments. There is no way to describe it other than incredibly trippy. Overall, the visuals are great and really put the story together.

I recommend this film to anyone who wants to learn more about the Indian culture, especially the Hinduism and The Ramayana. It's visually pleasing and you will get a more personal insight of love and how sometimes we just have to let go of the former loves of our life. It's also free to view! You can view the movie in its entirety on either Youtube or Nina Paley's site: www.sitasingstheblues.com. Go watch it; you have literally nothing to lose.

Happy Viewing!