Part B of Sita Sings the Blues really helped me understand more of the roles of Nina and Dave. They seem to be more of a contemporary example of Rama and Sita, where Nina has this great devotion to Dave but Dave does not seem to return it after she comes and visits him. This eventually leads to them breaking up. Again, I enjoyed the commentary of the narrators as they analyzed Rama. I did agree with them in that it did seem Rama never really trusted Sita or believed she was fully faithful. It does shed light on the perception of heroines and female characters compared to male characters, and it does seem that many older readings tend to have the same sentiment toward these characters. It still is an issue today. The narrators also made me question my perception of both Rama and Sita. Reading the Ramayana made the story seem simple on who is good and who is bad, and after the war was over, everything really was solved. However, the narrators brought forth more complex views and thinking, even questioning the perfect image that is often associated with Rama. After watching the video, I did more research on the film to get an understanding of some aspects of the video, such as singing. Apparently, the sinning was taken from tracks by Annette Hanshaw and even reflected some of her life events. Overall, the film was very enjoyable to watch. I loved the animation style as well as the three simultaneous stories going on from the Ramayana to Nina and Dave to the narrators talking. It really made wish Sita was a bigger character in the original Ramayana. My favorite part was undoubtedly the discussions by the narrators as they really expanded my understanding of the story.
Source: Nina Paley's film, Sita Sings the Blues
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