The Ramayana

The film uses a pared-down adaptation of the legend that retains many of its finer details while adopting a perspective sympathetic towards Sita; in the director's words, the film is "a tale of truth, justice and a woman's cry for equal treatment."^[2]

The plot joins the legend at the exile of the prince Rama from the kingdom of Ayodhya, at the behest of king Dasharatha's favorite queen, Kaikeyi. Having earned the right to any single favor by saving the Dasharatha's life, Kaikeyi attempts to secure her own son's inheritance over the eldest and favorite, Rama, by ordering him banished from the court. Sita, Rama's wife, determines to accompany her beloved husband, although the woods are dangerous and overrun with demons and evil spirits.

The demon king Ravana, encouraged by his spiteful ogress sister, Shurpanakha, hears of Sita's beauty and determines to kidnap her. He sends a golden hind, Maricha, past their dwelling to distract Rama, who tries to impress Sita by hunting the hind into the woods. In his absence, Ravana abducts Sita and demands that she submit to him on pain of death. Sita remains staunchly devoted to Rama and refuses to entertain the idea; Ravana sets a deadline for the ultimatum and Sita waits faithfully for Rama to rescue her.

Aided by the monkey prince Hanuman, Rama eventually discovers Sita's location and brings the monkey army to assist in her rescue. Ravana is slain and Sita is restored to her husband, although he expresses serious doubts concerning her fidelity during her confinement. She submits to a trial by fire, a test of her purity; upon throwing herself into the flames, she is immediately rescued by the gods, who all proclaim her devotion and fidelity.

She accompanies Rama back to the palace and soon falls pregnant. Rama overhearing one of his subjects beating and ejecting an unfaithful consort (claiming he is no Rama to accept and forgive her unfaithfulness), he reluctantly orders his brother Lakshman to abandon Sita in the forest. In the company of ascetics owned by the Sage Valmiki, she gives birth to her twin sons, Lava and Kusha, and raises them to love and praise their absent father.

Years later, Rama overhears their hymns of adoration to their father and locates their dwelling. Distressed and disappointed by Rama's actions during her reunion with Rama, Sita prays to the earth goddess, Bhumi-Devi, to swallow her as final proof of her purity and devotion, and the prayer is duly answered, despite the pleas of Rama and Lakshman.

Contemporary parallel

In an episode taken from the director's own life,^[2] animator Nina Paley starts the film living happily in a San Francisco apartment with her husband and cat. Her husband then accepts the offer of a six-month contract working in Trivandrum, India, and moves there alone to take up the position. After a month of no contact, he calls to inform his wife that the contract has been extended another year.

Bewildered by his callous indifference to their separation, Nina sublets their apartment, leaves their beloved cat behind, and joins her husband in India. Upon her arrival, he appears deeply unenthusiastic to be reunited and demonstrates neither affection nor sexual interest. A while later, Nina flies to a meeting in New York, where she receives a brief e-mail from her husband telling her that their relationship is over. Sad and alone, she stays in New York, finding comfort in a new cat and her study of the Ramayana.

Episodes from the Ramayana

Ravana approaches Sita during her captivity.

Episodes with dialogue from the Ramayana are enacted using painted figures of the characters in profile, which strongly resemble the 18th-century Indian tradition of Rajput painting. The Rajput style of brush painting was principally enacted on manuscripts and commonly employed in the telling of epics such as the Ramayana. In the film, they serve as a more traditional style of dramatic narrative, although the dialogue is frequently ironic, inappropriately modern, or otherwise humorous.

The background in each scene is usually static and the poses of each character are kept minimal, with movement achieved by simply transporting the character across the screen in its set position. Speech is enacted by alternating the set pose of the face with a slightly liquified version where the jaw is lower.

Narration and discourse on the Ramayana

The shadow puppet narrators discuss Rama's attitude towards Sita after her trial by fire.

Aseem Chhabra, Bhavana Nagulapally, and Manish Acharya provided the voices for three silhouettes, traditional Indian shadow puppets. They link episodes of the Ramayana with a lively, unscripted discussion of their personal impressions and knowledge of the epic.^[3] They provide context and commentary for the story, which has innumerable incarnations and regional variations.^[4]

The voices are clearly contemporary and somewhat irreverent, unlike their visualisations, which further establishes the theme of contrast between "ancient tragedy and modern comedy";^[5] Chhaya Natak shadow theatre, for example, was commonly used in retellings of the Ramayana.^[6]

During these sections, the ideas and contradictions raised over the course of the puppets' discussions are visualized in animated photographic compositions in the background.

Musical episodes from the Ramayana

Sita mourns her privation from her husband and his callous behaviour towards her.

Episodes set to certain songs performed by jazz singer Annette Hanshaw are visualized, with Sita as the singing performer, using the strikingly modern technique of vector graphic animation.

The slick, bold style – driven by digital animation software – is at odds with the somewhat rustic quality of the old musical recordings but allows close synchronization with the vocals. The smooth, repetitive, side-scrolling movement affects assists in suspending the musical episode from the more consistent narrative plot.

Contemporary parallel

On her arrival in India, Nina's husband seems distant.

The modern, more personal element to the contemporary part of the story is narrated using the rough, energetic Squigglevision technique of traditional animation. It conveys the kind of restlessness inherent in the story and achieves a more light-hearted, universal tone with its simple, highly stylized renderings of character and environments.

Music

A soundtrack album was released digitally in 2009, consisting of original music composed by Todd Michaelsen and the various jazz standards.

Copyright problems

The film uses a number of 1920s Annette Hanshaw recordings. Although Paley initially made sure these recordings were not covered by US copyright law,^[9] a number of other copyright issues surfaced, including state laws prior to US federal copyright law on recordings, rights to the compositions and the right to synchronize the recordings with images. These recordings were protected by state commerce and business laws passed at the time in the absence of applicable federal laws and were never truly "public domain".^[10]

Without a distributor, Paley was unable to pay the approximately $220,000 that the copyright holders originally demanded. Eventually, a fee of $50,000 was negotiated. Paley took out a loan to license the music in early 2009.^[1]

In July 2011, Paley made a protest video regarding the film's deletion from YouTube in Germany due to what she regards as fraudulent take-down notice under the aegis of GEMA, Germany's major music and performance rights organization,^[11] but which may be an instance of a larger on-going conflict regarding copyright and royalties between YouTube and GEMA.^[12][13]

On January 18, 2013, Paley announced that she has changed the film's Creative Commons license from "CC-BY-SA" (the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-alike 3.0 Unported license) to "CC-0" (public domain); she made the ownership rights change in response to the continual red tape of rights procurement, even under the share-alike license.^[14][15]

Critical response

Since its release, Sita Sings the Blues has attracted limited but consistent acclaim from critics. Rotten Tomatoes reports that 100% of critics have given the film a positive review, based on 32 reviews, with an 8.27/10 review average. The site's consensus reads: "A tour de force for filmmaker Nina Paley, Sita Sings the Blues gives the Ramayana its animated due with a visually vibrant, dazzlingly imaginative triumph".^[24] The film also holds a score of 94 on the review aggregator website Metacritic based on 11 reviews, indicating "Universal acclaim".^[25]

Film critic Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times enthused, "I am enchanted. I am swept away. I am smiling from one end of the film to the other. It is astonishingly original. It brings together four entirely separate elements and combines them into a great whimsical chord... To get any film made is a miracle. To conceive of a film like this is a greater miracle."^[26]

The New York Times also praised the film's ingenuity, commenting that "[it] evokes painting, collage, underground comic books, Mumbai musicals and 'Yellow Submarine' (for starters)," and praised Paley for her use of 2D animation: "A Pixar or DreamWorks extravaganza typically concludes with a phone book's worth of technical credits. Ms. Paley did everything in “Sita” — an amazingly eclectic, 82-minute tour de force — by herself."^[27]

Although The Hollywood Reporter declared the film to be "a rather rarified effort that will probably appeal more to adults than to children," it described it as "charming" and commented that, "Arriving amidst a tidal wave of overblown and frequently charmless big studio efforts, "Sita Sings the Blues" is a welcome reminder that when it comes to animation bigger isn't necessarily better."^[28]

The blog Sepia Mutiny reviewed the film noting that it has "lovely, highly stylized characters" and that Paley stayed "reasonably faithful" to the original story.^[29]

Controversy

The film has drawn controversy from a number of sides. In April 2009, the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti started a petition calling for a complete ban on the movie and initiation of legal action against all those who have been involved in its production and marketing, believing its portrayal of the Ramayana to be offensive, with some members going so far as to call it "a derogatory act against the entire Hindu community."^[30]

When the San Jose Museum of Art screened the film, a protester said: "I'm very angry about this film and feel very humiliated by the portrayal of Lord Ram in this very perverted way...negative portrayals of Hinduism cause discrimination and religious intolerance."^[31] Another protester at the same event suggested: "Trying to promote India's rich culture in such a way is appalling."^[31]

Paley expressed surprise at the adverse reaction, saying "I thought it might be a bit controversial, but I wasn't fully aware of how art and artists are major targets of some right-wing nationalist groups in India. I always imagine an audience of smart, compassionate people I'd enjoy spending time with."^[32] However, in an interview with India-West, she did acknowledge that Lord Ram is not depicted well in the film. She added to the source: "No one has to like it."

Awards

Sita Sings the Blues has won a number of awards.^[33]

Paley could not submit the film for consideration for an Academy Award since the film could not be shown commercially, and therefore could not meet the requirement of at least one week long commercial run.^[34]

Cultural impact

In April 2009, the film inspired a Bangkok high fashion line designed by Roj Singhakul, titled "Sita Sings the Blues".^[35]