Chapter Twenty Five: Reading the Ramayana Again (Part B)

 Part B of the film starts when Dave breaks up with his girlfriend while she is in New York. I have a feeling this is supposed to mirror when Rama abandons Sita when she tells him that she’s pregnant. Again what I like about this is that the maker of this film uses three methods to tell the story. She adds a modern day version, a musical version, and a version in which people are having a casual conversation. The structure of the casual conversation is what really caught my eye. What I liked most is that all three of the people having this conversation were discussing it as if they were in their own home. I think this is a really efficient method of telling the story because not everyone can sit through reading tons of different chapters with a different type of language and dialogue. Hearing these people have this conversation really solidified the story for me personally because casual conversations help me to remember and I’m sure that this is how it works for other people as well. Going back to the musical version of the story I thought it was ingenious that the maker of this film also used music to tell Sita’s version of the story. I’m sure there are several studies that talk about how music helps people remember all types of information. This example would be no different. The musical version of the story helps the person watching it remember significant events, which ultimately is the entire story. The songs are really catchy and really help to tell Sita’s feelings, which I’m sure is something the watcher won’t forget. Going back to Dave and Nina, I think this version of the story is a sort of supporting element. It doesn’t show up as often as the other versions but helps to tie everything together and solidify what was said in the other versions. In other words, it clarifies the story in modern day events. 

This is a photo from the film titled Sita Sings the Blues by Nina Paley 

(This photo is from Nina Paley’s “Sita Sings the Blues”. This image is titled Sita and Rama in Forest and was uploaded by Fred Miller to Flickr)