Review: Sita Sings the Blues (2008)

[Shane Burridge]

Sita Sings the Blues (2008) 78m
 
Some stories have been around so long that they're never going to 
stop being told.  China's 'Journey to the West', for example, has 
taken on a life far beyond its original narrative and is now more 
widely recognised as a TV series or movie than a text.  As far as 
epics go, Ancient Greece had the Iliad, Mesopotamia had Gilgamesh, 
and India had Ramayana, a Sanskrit tale I was unaware of until 
viewing the animated feature SITA SINGS THE BLUES.  Writer-director
-editor-everything Nina Paley distils the saga into a tidy 80 
minutes, telling the story through gramophone recordings (by 
jazz vocalist Annette Hanshaw) interspersed with a hilarious 
improvised narration by a trio of shadow puppets.  She even has 
time to throw in a parallel storyline that takes place in 
contemporary New York. The notable accomplishment of SITA is 
Paley's adept maneuvering of disparate elements (animation/
Indian folk mythology/1920s blues) and different graphic styles 
(there are three different versions of Sita alone - narrated 
Sita, singing Sita, and talking Sita) into an engaging tale that 
never seems forced or rushed.  
 
Cinema purists may sniff at SITA's antiseptically smooth patina 
of flash animation, but animation has never been the domain of 
hand-painted cels alone, as pixilation, stop-motion, claymation, 
and CGI have all proven.  In fact, the bright colours and 
clear-line technique of flash animation are highly appropriate 
for the presentation of the storybook illustrations that guide 
us through the movie.  Paley's film, which on first description 
sounds too cluttered for its own good, avoids becoming pretentious 
or 'artistic' through a lively sense of humour that vies with 
the graphic design and Hanshaw's performances as SITA's main 
asset. Having three narrators casually discuss the plot is a 
masterstroke, making the synopsis of Ramayana feel like 
storytelling instead of a lecture (surely the way Paley first 
learned of the tale herself as a youngster) and preserving the 
tradition of oral history which passed along such stories 
centuries ago.  SITA's agenda is clear from the outset that 
it wants to entertain first, inform second.  
 
The modern-day episodes could easily be jettisoned from the 
story, although as one of the protagonists, named Nina, is voiced 
by Paley herself, one suspects that there might be something 
autobiographical inspiring their inclusion.  SITA takes the 
time-honored tradition of Bollywood pop movies, in which musical 
numbers slot into the story regardless of genre, and switches their 
eastern rhythms for vintage western jazz.  It shouldn't work, but 
it does.  As Sita's tale is one of continual suffering and hardship, 
the most logical choice for musical accompaniment is blues.  
Unfortunately it is this innovation which became a sticking point 
for the film, freezing its distribution due to the heavy licensing 
fees demanded by the copyright holders of the original 1927-1929 
recordings.  However, such muzzling is irrelevant in the days of 
cyberspace file sharing, and such is the wit and charm of SITA 
that it will be widely seen regardless of restrictions - or even 
because of them.  Some stories have been around so long that 
they're never going to stop being told.  Especially in the age of 
the internet.
 
sburridge at hotmail.com
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