Friday, January 15, 2010

Ramayana Retold- Sita Sings The Blues!




Ramayana is a story told and retold and retold and retold and retold but we Indians are never bored of it. We can hear the story as many times as it reaches our ear. We know the characters, we know the story , the plot, the ending but still there's something so magical about the way it is told that it ends up telling more about the person telling it than the story itself. 


From our grandmother version to the Bollywood version we have tried to see it all and missed. The epic comes again over and over with its enthralling magic to mesmerize our attention. Not much time has passed since the animated "Hanuman" and "The Hanuman Returns" were presented to the children and well appreciated and loved. They sparked a frenzy among filmmakers to make animated films about our very own religious heroes/Gods. 


Recently the Indian Mythologies has been adapted and reproduced by various people. One of them include the joint venture of Deepak Chopra and Virgin Comics (more on this later) and the other is a brilliant work of Nina Paley on the animated movie "Sita Sings The Blues". A dynamic and revolutionary treatment of the same story which has never failed to fascinate us. 


"Sita Sings The Blues" uses variety of animation techniques and styles. The whole story is told keeping Sita in the mean focusing on her point of view. What an experience it is to watch the movie!!! No don't wonder about the release dates of the movie because you can LEGALLY download the movie from the official website here. On her website she says:


"You don't need my permission to copy, share, publish, archive, show, sell, broadcast, or remix Sita Sings the Blues. Conventional wisdom urges me to demand payment for every use of the film, but then how would people without money get to see it? How widely would the film be disseminated if it were limited by permission and fees? Control offers a false sense of security. The only real security I have is trusting you, trusting culture, and trusting freedom."

Now this is a real artist. These are the words and the intentions behind the movie and it deserves standing ovation. 




If you want the movie banned from the internet then you can sign the petition here!!! Banning something so beautiful doesn't make sense yes i agree Hindus will find it offensive for their Gods have been misused (Read  M F Hussain) and will be skeptical about the intentions of the artist but i strongly believe Hindus should not be  feeling insulted rather they should welcome it as a bold and modern description of their ages-told tale and how it is relevant even today!


Check the official website of Nina Paley here.

7 comments:

Vineeta said...

Oh yes.. I heard of this first time on "Now Showing" on NDTV and wanted to watch it since then but then completely forgot about it. Even the story of this writer is also worth knowing.. thanks for reminding me :) I will nw watch n comment :)

Priya said...

Thanks for sharing Parv and hats of to them for keeping it alive.

Parv Kaushik said...

@vineeta sure do watch it and comment... lolzzz! go fr it best thing is its free for download officially!!

Parv Kaushik said...

@priya thnk u i hope we have more such artists pouring in!

BK Chowla, said...

It is commendable.
One finds such writers very rarely.

Parv Kaushik said...

@BK Chowla yes i agree with you except the fact that she isn't a writer she is a film maker!

Maggie said...

I watched Sita Sings the Blues as a part of class activity :) and then over and over again! and I respect the brilliance of the film and the film maker. why one would find it offensive is beyond me... Also good post!