Sita Sings the Blues: Retelling of Ram and Sita’s love story in Ramayana from a woman’s point of view

Sita Sings the Blues opens with Billie Holiday’s “Moanin’ low” and gets stuck at “He’s the kind of man needs the kind of a woman like me,” and there is an instant connect to the modern female audience. Nina Paley, in her directorial, blends popular narratives and unconventional visual styles to create an enchanting and playfully funny yet poignant. It is unapologetic and unabashedly original in its telling of a tale of truth, justice and a woman’s cry for equal treatment in the society.

While in Ramayana, Sita — the dutiful wife — follows her husband Ram on a fourteen-year-long exile to a forest, only to be kidnapped by Ravana, and despite remaining faithful to her husband, she is put through many tests. In this biographical plot, Nina, the lead character who is an artist finds parallels in Sita’s life when her husband – in India on a work project – decides to break up their marriage and dump her via email.

The movie is narrated by three hilarious Indonesian shadow puppets with Indian accents to show how Ramayana is popular not only in India but also the Far East. The three shadow puppets narrate both the ancient tragedy and modern comedy in this slick animated interpretation of the epic.

The film, even as it questions the traditional take on a woman’s woes, makes for an entertaining watch as it uses 1920’s jazz vocals of Annette Hanshaw for its musical interludes.

Nina’s film is a layered piece of art, along with the music, even the visuals are stunning as her character inspire a world of wonderment and a attitude of questioning the archaic way of celebrating a woman’s sacrifice. And to do so, the filmmaker has made use of an enormous cast that includes flying monkeys (representing the vaanar sena), evil monsters, gods, goddesses, warriors, sages, and winged eyeballs — to show how women are, more often than than not, screened through lens of judgement by the society, for their decisions and actions.

As any piece of art that questions the norm, popular beliefs and traditional gender roles triggers controversy, Sita Sings the Blues has been criticised for its unfavourable portrayal of Ram even as Rotten Tomatoes reports that 100% of critics have given the film a positive review.

But why is Sita Sings the Blues even more relevant today? Nina’s film offers the audience an opportunity for critical thinking and reclaim the popular narrative of Ramayana and question it. It makes viewers understand the gravity of observing and understanding the underlying themes of masculinity, treatment of women and changing views in a fast evolving society.