Preview

Sita Sings the Blues: A Portrayal of the Condition of Women Today

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1529 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Sita Sings the Blues: A Portrayal of the Condition of Women Today
SITA SINGS THE BLUES
Sita sings the blues is an animated film directed by an American artist named nina paley basically using 2D graphics and flash animation. This movie is directed produced and written by nina paley narrated by aseem chhabra, bhavana nagulpally, manish acharya. This movie stars sanjiv jhaveri, nina paley, deepti gupta, debargo sanyal, reena shah, Pooja kumar, Aladdin ulaah. The music for this film has been given by Annette hanshaw and the movie was released on 11th of February 2008.
This film is sympathetic towards sita. This film has picked some incedents from Ramayana involving sita where they have shown things from sita’s perspective and how she suffered at the various walks of her life after she got married to rama.
The plot joins the exile of prince rama from his father’s court on a request from one of his father’s wives named kaikeyi who had once when the king was very ill had taken proper care of him and in return the king had granted her one wish any time in her life. Kekeyi used this opportunity to get rama out of the picture for the raj singhasan by asking the king to grant her the wish and send his eldest son rama on anexile so that her son bharat could take over after the king.
Sita decided to follow rama to the forest with him as she saw herself accompanying her husband anywhere he went. She was of the belief that her existence was for rama and to be with him in every situation was her duty. The forest was not a bed of roses. They faced a lot of problems and finally started living in a hut which in itself was not safe. Ravan’s sister attracts ravana’s attention to sita’s beauty and ravana gets adamant to make her his. For the same he sends a beautiful deer to the forest to distract rama so that in the mean while he can abduct sita from her hut. As rama goes out to get the deer for sita, ravana makes his way into her hut and takes her with him to lanka. Ravana demads sita to submit to him in the pain of death but sita remains

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The New Woman Analysis

    • 556 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The New Woman was conveyed through the artists illustrations beginning in the 1880’s and continuing through the years, ending in the 1920’s. These images such as the works titled, “What Are We Coming To”, “In a Twentieth Century Club”, “Picturesque America”, and “Women Bachelors In New York”, all conveyed this idea of a “New Woman”. The qualities that a New Woman must have included a woman who pursued the highest education and made effort to move up in the professional world. “She (the New Woman) also demonstrated new patterns of private life, from shopping in the new urban department stores, to riding bicycles, and playing golf.” (pg. 374) The artists attempted to create this perfect all around woman who’s lives closely resembled what the men of that time were doing. Such as in figure 6.8 titled “In a Twentieth Century Club” which shows women dressed in clothing which closely resembled that of a mans attire for that era, at leisure, socializing with other woman. This “club” looked very similar to a men’s drinking and eating club. “ Although role reversal still provides the humor, the women waitresses and patrons are physically attractive, while the women’s unladylike posture and clothing would have been viewed as shocking equally significant is the cross dressing entertainer.” (pg. 374) Not only did artists attempt to convey a way that the New Woman should act, but they also created this popular physical image of what one should look like such as the Gibson Girls pictured in image 6.9. Most all of the illustrations showed a white woman of the leisure class, however African American women still envisioned and strived to become a New African American Woman.…

    • 556 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    We Are Not Your Monkeys

    • 912 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Rama, known as a lofty ruler and an ideal hero for common Indian people, is considered as the representative of upper caste people in the poem. Instead of glorifying him as a deity, hero, or king, the authors choose negative words when describing Rama and his deeds. For example, in the original story, the monkeys are described as Rama’s ally; they help Rama to defeat the demons. However, in the poem, it is Rama “enslaves” them, forms the army, and “wants” them to destroy Lanka for him. They become victims while Rama turns from an inviolable hero to a tyrant. The authors also offer a different interpretation to the beginning of Indian history. They say, “Once Aryans on their horses/ invaded this land/ And we who were natives/ became the displaced” (p. 653, line 10-14). In the poets’ version, the upper caste people are actually invaders while the oppressed people the real aboriginal inhabitants of the land. The invention of the caste system, according to the poets, is not derived from the division of the primal man but the invaders’ intention to keep their racial purity.…

    • 912 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Rama is the main character and superhero of this story. The main character is a hero, who is often possessed of supernatural abilities or qualities. Rama displays his supernatural abilities by being able to pick up a strong edged bow. Also later in the story he has the ability to fly and having the power to neutralize an arrow and fly a chariot. The hero is charged with a quest. Rama has to leave, because sita has two wishes and one of them is exiling him to the forest for 14 years. His wife is kidnapped and wants revenge on ravanna. The hero is tested, often to prove the worthiness of himself and his quest. By facing ravanna on his journey is challenging his worthiness and it tested him on his quest to revenge. The presence of numerous mythical beings, magical and helpful animals, and human helpers and companions, monkeys were part of the magical quest helping Rama to defeat ravanna.…

    • 274 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Status Of Women Essay

    • 928 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The status of women enhanced during the interwar years as a result of social gains, political changes, and economic developments.…

    • 928 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Roll cameras, and ACTION!” We should see the roles that deal with politics and our managers normal, and not an exception. Along with actresses, female directors face a strong bias in landing any major roles in the film production. Like many advocates, I hope to be an influential director one day, therefore I will fight for equality but not a separation in Hollywood.…

    • 779 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In A Thousand Splendid Suns, Hosseini establishes Mariam as a powerless, young woman, set to marry a cold, abusive husband to demonstrate the easy oppression against women in a man-ruled culture. While Rasheed, her husband, is seen as important in his own eyes, Mariam is treated as an object for him due to her social status as a woman, than as an equal to him. In the end Mariam breaks out of the social norms of by uniting with another woman to achieve what she most desires, freedom, and gives up her life of living with Rasheed. To achieve what you most desire you must sacrifice something else. Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper focuses on the oppression of a mentally ill woman, but the view of the author is shown in a different perspective with a different attitude towards the tyranny over woman: it is not the stern, dominance of men in the culture that is, to…

    • 1240 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Modern Day Feminism

    • 914 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a powerful leader in the modern day feminist movement, once said in a speech presented at TEDxEuston, We Should All Be Feminists, “Some people ask: ‘Why the word feminist? Why not just say you are a believer in human rights, or something like that?’ Because that would be dishonest. Feminism is, of course, part of human rights in general—but to choose to use the vague expression human rights is to deny the specific and particular problem of gender. It would be a way of pretending that it was not women who have, for centuries, been excluded. It would be a way of denying that the problem of gender targets women.” The actions of the F1 generation of feminist women who sparked the women's rights…

    • 914 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hinduism In Modern Society

    • 1740 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Sita, who is fully devoted to Lord Rama, has to go through a purity test after returning from the Ravana’s Lanka. Why Lord Rama, another avatar of lord Vishnu, was skeptical of Sita, his own wife? Even after she is proved pure and honest, lord Rama banishes her from Ayodhya? What was Sita’s fault if she was kidnapped by Ravana? She didn’t even look at Ravana during her stay in Lanka and suffers the banishment for no reason. Why did lord Rama travel all the way to Lanka to rescue Sita, if he was to banish her…

    • 1740 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Although written in a vastly different time period and setting, The Ramayana’s protagonist, Rama, also illustrates the key qualities of a hero. In Hinduism, the main religion of India, dharma means code or sacred duty and is roughly the equivalent of pietas.…

    • 590 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In this country, many feel as though health care is a right of the citizens. I myself struggle with this idea as I do believe we need to address the health care needs of our country but do not feel responsible for those that make poor health care decisions on a daily basis and look for us as a country to care for them. With that same thought, I feel a responsibility to help those that are truly trying and are not offered health care benefits through their employers, and cannot afford to purchase health care insurance, as well as the underinsured. We have to take a stance of what is best for the whole.…

    • 886 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Rama In Sundiata

    • 655 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Rama behaves honorably in fulfilling his familial duties. Although Rama undergoes the ignominy of being exiled, he willingly accepts the circumstances and does not attempt to orchestrate events in his favor. King Dasaratha is forced by Kaikeyi to send Rama into exile and even though Rama’s family members and advisors try to convince him to stay, he refuses to do so. When his father attempts to break the promise he made to Kaikeyi and begs Rama to stay, the latter still chooses to go out of respect for his father’s initial words. In one case, Rama says to his mother that his father is “renowned for the steadfastness of his words” and he is “blessed...to carry out his father’s command, and to live in the forests” (Narayan, 46). By choosing to…

    • 655 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sita’s refusal to do as she’s told is not met with scorn or distaste like Penelope’s actions are. When Sita tells Rama that she is going with him or will take her own life, Rama meets her declaration with acceptance and recognizes that her argument is valid. This, however, is not what happens later in the epic when Sita and Laksmana are worried that Rama has been lead deeper into the forest by the demon Marcia. Laksmana claims that, even though he knows he is right, Sita’s accusations have hurt him and he know that women are “easily led away from dharma; they are fickle and sharp-tongued” and thus heads off into the forest in search of Rama, leaving Sita alone despite Rama’s orders (1191). While Sita is allowed to speak her mind to her husband she—like Penelope—must watch what she says to men that she is not intimately bound to. While both women live in different cultures and are still bound by the laws of such, they do not let those laws interfere with how they live their…

    • 1036 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    sita sings the blues

    • 602 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Sita Sings the Blues is an animated version of the epic Indian tale “Ramayana”. The movie was released on February 11, 2008 and directed, produced, and written by Nina Paley. Sita Sings the Blues uses images and art covering two thousand years of history and culture. The movie is not just an average movie with one plot, but, instead, it is four stories each connecting and showing how ideals about gender roles have changed over time. Paley uses different styles that are key to help the viewer analyze the story being told. The stories are all spread out throughout Sita Sings the Blues, but Paley makes it clear when the story switches. (Wikipedia) (Parispins)…

    • 602 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Lives of Girls and Women

    • 1483 Words
    • 6 Pages

    In The Lives of Girls and Women, the main character Del Jordan grows from a young curious child to a woman. At a young age she is very curious about her sexuality, but is forewarned by her mother to be careful about her decisions. Del's curiosity leads her into making many wrong decisions regarding men. All these wrong decisions cause her to lose everything she had worked so hard for – her goals, her dreams ruined.…

    • 1483 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Art is a form of expression that lives on for centuries but changes in interpretation over time. What may be relevant in this time period may make no sense to the upcoming generations. Nina Paley’s film "Sita Sings the Blues" brings two cultures, traditions, values and time periods together to convey her message and bring relevance of her art across many cultures and generations. The Ramayana by Valmiki on the other hand is a very traditional epic which depicts the ideal of every relation, one ideal example being the wife of Rama, Sita. Idealistically, a wife in Indian culture is to stick to her husband no matter how harshly she is treated by him, she should be calm in every situation and should be the one to try and hold a household together. In modern society this is a concept which is not logical to this generation and certainly would not be accepted and tolerated because of the evolution of women rights. This essay will discuss the traditional interpretation of the centuries old poem, The Ramayana, and later correlate it with Paley’s, modernized retelling of the same story. Paley, in her movie openly lays the fate of Sita; she reasons that happiness is not just found in being in a marriage with children but rather with an understanding between two parties. If two people cannot work things out they move on as Paley did in her personal story. This is a concept which is a great contradiction to the "female dharma" which is explained in the Ramayana as the ideal of women.…

    • 1339 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays

Related Topics