Reading (Viewing) Notes: Sita Sings the Blues Part A
My favorite thing about this film is the 3 storytellers that narrate the Ramayana. I love the flow of consciousness style of narrating used. They mess up character names. They admit they don't quite remember what happens next and they play off each other to try and figure it out. I think it would be interesting to write in this way where a lot of the details are fuzzy and it reads more like a conversation but that would not be without challenges. I also notice the characters pull in things from the surrounding culture like the burning of the mosque in Ayodhya that was supposedly built where Rama was born as well as TV shows and movies about the Ramayana.
Another interesting decision in this version of the Ramayana is that Lakshmana is essentially absent from the story. I think this is to highlight the relationship between Sita and Rama and make it more analogous to the story of Nina and Dave which is actually a cool way to show how the Ramayana is relevant. I do think not talking very much about Lakshmana is a missed opportunity in terms of humor though which is very prevalent theme throughout the film.
The film is kind of offbeat and it doesn't take itself too seriously. I wonder how that style can best be mimicked in written form. It is much more difficult to create the situational humor that the film does in its animations in a written story but a clearly unreliable narrator might be a realistic way to add humor
Bibliography:
Sita Sings the Blues by Nina Paley (2008).
The Narrators (7:18)
Another interesting decision in this version of the Ramayana is that Lakshmana is essentially absent from the story. I think this is to highlight the relationship between Sita and Rama and make it more analogous to the story of Nina and Dave which is actually a cool way to show how the Ramayana is relevant. I do think not talking very much about Lakshmana is a missed opportunity in terms of humor though which is very prevalent theme throughout the film.
The film is kind of offbeat and it doesn't take itself too seriously. I wonder how that style can best be mimicked in written form. It is much more difficult to create the situational humor that the film does in its animations in a written story but a clearly unreliable narrator might be a realistic way to add humor
Bibliography:
Sita Sings the Blues by Nina Paley (2008).
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