MovieChat Forums > Sita Sings the Blues (2009) Discussion > It seems that Nina's letting off some st...

It seems that Nina's letting off some steam

posted 15 years ago by AgnoscoCausa
3 replies | jump to latest

I get the feeling from the film that Nina Paley is venting emotions about her breakup, along with her critique of the Ramayana. It's clear she finds some things about the Ramayana disturb her sensibilities.

The art in general is brilliant and unique. Though I did not like anything at all about the musical numbers, save perhaps the originality of their artistic usage.

While some fundamentalists might find this film offensive, they would do well to remember, it's just the expression of one persons own offense and bewilderment which was found in the Ramayana.

I think though, if Hindus be upset about the film, it's partly in that people may be taken in and enamored by the artistic quality thus (potentially) blindly accepting the 'thumbing the nose' at the Ramayana part, then disregarding any effort to try and understand the Ramayana beyond Nina's interpretation.

I'm all for ruthless yet constructive critical analysis of all religions. But this film mostly left me encountering the feelings of a bitter and scorned woman.

I wonder if Nina's husband went to India for a job but ended up leaving her for a religious group, which led her to do a cursory study of the Ramayana (as seen at the end of the film), and then on to vent her emotions by animating a parallel between it and her own experience.

I believe that for most of us, our own break up is the greatest breakup story ever.

[–] dagrattle 15 years ago

I don't know if you listened to the commentary soundtrack, but she does say there (and in at least one interview) that the film was a kind of *catharsis* for her as part of getting over the breakup of her marriage. She related closely to Sita's position, more than the story of the Ramayana itself. And she did discuss some comments the production got from Hindu fundamentalists... %^D

She also said that she found some things about the Ramayana that were very close to her situation, and the situation of any woman (and I'd expand that to person) going through a breakup. That's why she used it. It's not so much an analysis of religion - she potentially could have used any tale involving a breakup.

Don't misinterpret this, because I'm not trying to show disrespect to Hinduism - but it was probably something similar to a Hindu looking at a tale from Shintoism and relating it to his/her own life. It's about the universality of the situation, rather than the religious instruction behind the tale.

[–] KongKongAGAIN 15 years ago

I very much like this film, but do feel, at the same time, it isn't all being told from some deep, deliberating director; rather, it's very much the work of a person who's simply resentful of, and pissed off at, someone — Nina's "angry letter" to her husband (for the world to read), if you will.

[–] unknownbroadway 14 years ago

I do not think so