My Favorite Movies: Sita Sings the Blues (2009)

One of the most wonderful and joyous musical comedies that I have ever seen was also one of the biggest coups by any film artist in history. Writer-director Nina Paley spent four years making Sita Sings the Blues on her own computer, and used the film as a weapon in a personal battle against the nation’s contradictory copyright laws. Using previously released music, she displayed the film for free on her website at a low resolution and was released on the website as a free download in March 2009 at all resolutions which allowed the film to generate a growing following (which was also helped by praise from Roger Ebert). All of this was in service of displaying a film that is, for me, pure magic. Paley created a glorious animated fantasy that is part love story, part musical, part Bollywood tribute, part comedy, part melodrama and all parts unapologetic fun.

The result of her labor is a strange, confounding, colorful, daffy and sometimes hilarious imagining of the legendary Indian folk tale of “The Ramayana.” In it, Ramayana (referred in this film simply as “Rama”) is a blue-skinned Indian prince who dumps his wife when he suspects that she committed adultery while she was in the clutches of the ten-headed creature who kidnapped her. The story is narrated by three wisecracking shadow puppets who discuss the story in an effort to orient themselves – and us – on the progress of a story that is probably far more complicated than it needs to be.

Meanwhile, in another parallel story, Paley tells her own autobiographical journey of how her husband dumped her and left her with a broken heart that ultimately resulted in her creating Sita Sings the Blues.

The main story, though, involves Rama being forced into exile by his father, at the request of his wicked stepmother who wastes no tears on her blue-skinned stepson. She tells him – with an Indian accent – “Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.” Rama is married to the beautiful Sita, and asks her not to join him in his exile, but Sita is determined that a woman’s place is next to her husband. She sings the rapturous joy of being with Rama through Hanshaw’s evocative jazzy tune “Here We Are” as the two lovers spent time playing hide and seek. Her joy isn’t even deterred when Rama kills a group of blue demons who come out of the woods to do harm to the couple.

It is the songs that evoke the most magical moments of Sita Sings the Blues. Sita (pronounced “See-tah”), who looks like a Middle Eastern version of Betty Boop, sings Hanshaw’s songs with a sexy, laid-back style and always punctuates the numbers with a happy “That’s all” (which was Hanshaw’s trademark). All of the songs speak to the situation at hand, and every time Sita opens her mouth to sing, it brings a smile to our faces. Even when she’s sad, the film’s visuals still evoke a jolly tone. Paley allows the film’s visual palette to compliment what is happening to Sita during these musical interludes: When she sings “Am I Blue?” she literally turns blue. When she sings “Lover Come Back to Me”, it is accompanied by repeated scenes of her lover dropping her. When Sita is broken-hearted, she sings of her sadness with the melancholy tune “Mean to Me”.

The rest I must leave for you to discover, suffice to say that what passes for a happy ending will depend on how badly you really want Rama and Sita to be together again. This is a film that asks questions about what a woman is willing to settle for from her man. Sita’s story is the story of a woman treated cruelly by her man when jealousy overtakes him and the price she is willing to pay for his mistrust.

Much more I cannot say without spoiling the experience. Sita Sings the Blues represents all the reasons that I love the movies. It is lively and fun, it tells a great story that is equal parts comedy, drama, romance, heartbreak, adventure, comeuppance, revenge, all mixed into a musical that is bouncy and fun. It tells a story that is universal in a way that we’ve never seen before, using various techniques and camera tricks to tickle us and treat us and allow us regard it with wonder.