Week 5 Reading B: Ramayana - Sita Sings the Blues movie

Sita Cries a River on Wikimedia

I finished up the movie Sita Sings the Blues on YouTube for this week’s version of the Ramayana. This film is highly entertaining and a very different experience than reading the original version in its entirety. The language is not so complex, and the characters (maybe because we have already learned about them for two weeks) were not as easy to confuse. However, as I stated in my last set of notes, it can be confusing to listen to the three narrators talk about the Ramayana if you do not have any knowledge of what the tale is about. The good thing about having these three normal people discuss the Ramayana in this way is that the person watching the movie has the sense that they are learning along with the audience.

Also, as these narrators talk, we learn more about individual characters. For example, Ravana is not painted in such negative light. He is depicted as a righteous king whose sole misdeed was kidnapping Sita for his own selfish desires. The narrators explain that he prays to all of the gods and is educated, which is a nice, new way to look at Ravana. Also, the narrators talk about Hanuman, and explain that he was born for the sole purpose of helping Rama in his journey. Things like this are easy to gloss over in the original version of the Ramayana, because it can be a definite overload of information if you have no knowledge of any of the characters or the basic plot of the epic.

Also, as I mentioned in my last set of notes, I think that Sita singing the blues to tell this tale is an important new way to learn about the Ramayana. As the blues are a fun and original way to educate a new group of people, Sita singing about her own experiences and desires really gives one a different look at this famous tale. In the original version, Sita is presented as the wife of Rama, and not really her own person with her own thoughts. Learning about a story from various viewpoints allows for better understanding of particular characters, and this is something that I will try to get across in my own storytelling.

You can access the film here: Sita Sings the Blues.