When a storyteller weaves the strands of art, personal life experience, and ancient culture together, the resulting tapestry can be a catastrophic lump, or mind-bogglingly brilliant. Nina Palay is one such brilliant storyteller, whose art and personal narrative weave in and out with the Ramayana and the songs of Annette Hanshaw.
This may seem a really unlikely combination. The Ramayana is India’s ancient Sanskrit epic of 24,000 verses in seven books, depicting human relationships, power, and the struggle between good and evil. Annette Hanshaw was one of the first great female jazz singers in the 1920s in the United States. Nina Paley had her own personal experience of a heart-breaking relationship. She saw a parallel between her own life, and that of Sita in the Ramayana. The lines between the two women, one from ancient India, the other from present day USA, constantly blur, especially in the emotional spectrum, and in their relationship with the man in their life. The songs of Annette Hanshaw give voice to Sita’s, and Nina’s own joy and anguish, through the lyrics, which are very apt for each circumstance, and the mood, which swings between joyful, flirty, and soulful.
This is a two-hour animation film, which explores three unique styles for the different narratives, and has extremely entertaining, and sometimes irreverent commentary from three shadow puppets. The movie is available online, and free for all to enjoy, screen and distribute. Nina is a believer of the free culture movement, so there is no excuse to miss such a fantastic film. ‘Sita Sings the Blues’ received the Jury Prize for Best Narrative Feature at the Indian Film Festival in Los Angeles.
So go ahead, don’t hesitate to watch this film, and share it with others, because Sita rarely sings. That too the blues.
By Armeen Kapadia and Sanjay Basavaraju
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