Week 12 Reading Diary: Sita Sings the Blues

This week I watched the first half of Sita Sings the Blues.

I'm not a huge fan of this movie so far. The intro was pretty confusing. I know that Laksmi and Vishnu were two of the people portrayed. I'm not sure who the others were, especially the guy with six spinning heads. There are three versions of the story you get:  Sita sings about what's happening, three narrators talk about the story, and a modern-day version of the story is shown.

When Sita sings, the style of music doesn't really fit the style of art or the rest of the film well. You don't really think of jazzy blues when you're watching a film highly influenced by Indian art. The art used when Sita sings is also interesting. Sita's waist is itty bitty, while her boobs and butt are huge. This reminds me of something I read in another version of the Ramayana (I think Buck's, but I'm not sure). That author said Sita's waist was so small Rama could wrap one hand all the way around it. Rama is this huge, handsome muscle man, which goes against how I've always envisioned him.

The narrators ramble on about the story in a way that makes you think they have no clue what they're talking about. They even say Ravana did nothing bad except capture Sita. I'm not sure if the creator of this film intended to do this or not.

Then there's the modern-day couple. When they first came on screen I was very confused. As the movie has gone on, I realize it's a retelling of part of Rama and Sita's story.