Reading Notes: Nina Paley's, Sita Sings the Blues(Part A)

Lakshmi and a phonograph emerge from the ocean on what appears to be lotus flowers. The introduction to this film is very colorful and full of creativity.
The film starts in San Francisco. Presumably the two main characters are a male and a female who seem to be married who own a cat.
The male in the relationship gets a job offer to work in India.
There are some paper cutouts talking about what they know about Indian history. Seems like a typical conversation theses paper cutouts are having. Does not seem scripted at all. I wouldn't be surprised if the producer of this film just had these people talk and then animated what they said.

(Sita Sings the Blues.

Source: Web)

Kaiykei banishes Rama, and Sita decides to go with him. Sita claims that a woman's place is next to her husband and that she cannot live without him.
At about 12 minutes a jazz song starts about Sita and Rama being together. The animation that goes along with the blues song that Sita is singing is pretty cool. It is a style that I have not seen before. To show how strong Rama is, some rakshisas try and kidnap some brahmin and he shows off his archery skillls by killing them all.

Change of scene and the husband is saying goodbye to his wife and heading to India.
The paper cutouts are now having a conversation about Ravana saying all the good/bad things he did. They come to the conclusion that the only bad thing he actually did was steal Sita away from Rama. He is a super devoted follower of Shiva. Ravana has like 9 heads and about 20 arms in his depiction in this film.
Rama chases a magical looking deer and while Rama is away this is when Ravana will jump in to steal Sita.
While Sita is singing a blues song about how she would do anything for her man while Ravana is being a sleazy snake sneaking up on her.

The paper cutouts are now having a conversation about Hanuman. Hanuman is a reincarnation of Shiva and his purpose is to help Rama find Sita. Hanuman is a monkey warrior who is the son of the wind.

When Hanuman goes and visits Sita it depicts when his tail gets caught on fire and he goes around and sets everything on fire pretty well.

Rama and an army of monkeys goes to save Sita. So many people are killed in this battle it shows a river of blood behind Sita while she is singing.

Rama and Sita are reunited and he believes that Ravana and Sita hooked up so Rama doesn't want anything to do with her.

This film follows a cycle where it shows a little scene between the husband and wife. Then the paper cutouts talk about a topic, then that is followed by a blues song with Sita and Rama. All of the scenes follow the same theme then it moves onto the next topic.

Bibliography: Nina Paley, Sita Singe The Blues
Link: http://iereadingguides.blogspot.com/search/label/Guide%3A%20Paley.%20Sita