(Sita singing the blues. Source: Wikimedia)
One thing that keeps coming to me is the type of animation. When Sita is singing the animation is very simple (no offense to the creator). The body of Sita and all the characters and animals are in shapes. They are not free drawn or anything. When I was in high school I took an animation class and I actually learned how to make animation using simple shapes like seen in the video.
When the video started I was kind of confused with what was going on. I did not understand the laundry scene besides the guy taking a dig at Sita and Rama. I did not remember this from the Ramayana besides the people thinking Sita was not pure. In the Ramayana, if I am not mistaken, Rama did not know Sita was pregnant before he sent her into exile. To me this seems very hard to believe that he would send his wife who is pregnant into exile. To me, this would look worse than having her stay with you. It seems almost un-noble of him to send her into exile in this condition.
I was also debating Sita's devotion to Rama. It would be pretty hard to still love/worship someone that just sent you into exile while you are pregnant and after you even proved yourself pure. So she is either crazy or has unconditional love. It would be interesting to see how you can create a story and have audience members believe two different things. At this point, I now have some dislike for Rama. He finds his kids and wants to take them and then is unsure what to do about Sita and doesn't seem excited to see her. I could not believe this. He seems very stubborn. I think it was just of her to call mother earth and ask to be taken away. Rama although he was sad, got what he deserved.
The music in this movie seemed to have an old time blues feel to it. It really helped to captivate the audience and get them to feel a certain way. I know I was sad when she starting singing about being blue and alone and thought of ending her life. The imagery also helped to show this when all the animals turned blue as well.
Bibliography: Sita Sings the Blues by Nina Paley. 2008.
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