Indian Epics

Sita looked into the eyes of the beloved Rama of her younger years. Her twin sons joined their father as she faced him.  She opened her mouth to speak, "First I was afraid. I was petrified. Kept thinking I could never live without you by  my side.  But then I spent so many nights thinking how you did me wrong.  And I grew strong 1 ." Rama moved  forward to defend his case.  Sita held up her hand and glared at him.  " I would go through all this pain. Take a bullet straight through my brain. Yes I would die for you, baby. But you won't do the same 2 ." Rama dismissed Sita.  "Sita, I could not risk my subjects not respecting me for keeping you as my wife." "R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Find out what it means to me 3 ." With an indignant glare and a roll of her hips, she threw her hands into the air and called to Mother Nature, "Mama, life had just begun. But now I've gone and thrown it all away. Mama! Oooooo 4 !"   Sita fell...

For this week's reading, I decided to watch Sita Sings the Blues. I love movies and the animation looks fun. I'm excited to see the story of the Ramayana through a different perspective. To begin, I can already tell that I appreciate Nina Paley's sense of style and humor. Her opening credits give attention to "Your money" and "Your name".  I love the bright colors and abrupt actions When I think of Indian culture I think of beautiful patterns and colors The cosmic intro gives an homage to Rama and Sita's heavenly background The animation changes abruptly when it switches to San Fran, CA This film provides context by tying it to Ayodha The mismatched video style reflects the various writing styles of the online version I read Perhaps this is symbolic of the oral tradition of the Ramayana Mentions Sita's different names I like the commentary included because it shows how multi-faceted the story is and how many translations/versions ...