Nina Paley's _Sitayana_

[Guest guest]

Nina Paley's Sitayana: The Storm to Come

May 05, 2007

By Amrita Rajan

http://desicritics.org/2007/05/05/121405.php

 

Nina Paley bills herself as " America's Best Loved

Unknown Cartoonist " . Give her till 2008 when she plans

to make her full length animation debut with a feature

on the life of Sita and she'll be " India's Best Debated

Unknown Cartoonist " .

 

To rewind a little, Paley is the creator of _Sitayana_- a.k.a.

_Sita Sings the Blues_, a series of short animations based

on the story of Sita from the _Ramayana_. Paley, an

American artist who lives in New York, has already

attracted a lot of attention from Indian netizens for her

colorful work set to little-remembered blues music from

the 1930s (by Annette Hanshaw, an interesting story in

her own right).

 

While the original inspiration for her work came during

a visit to Kerala where her American husband was then

working, Paley began working on Sitayana in earnest

after her husband dumped her by email.

 

" [A]s time went on, my life began increasingly to

resemble Sita's. I desperately tried to move on

emotionally, but I couldn't get over my husband. Why

was my heart devoted to him, when he'd treated me so

badly? My husband's peculiar behavior resembled

Rama's: no violent explosions, just mysterious

emotional implosions. Why had he frozen up? Why had

he rejected me, when I loved him so much? Why, why,

why? "

 

What! The sacred bond between Sita and Rama likened

to an American divorce? How dare she? Everybody

knows that the stories of gods and goddesses are not

meant to have any relevance to real, actual people unless

otherwise sanctified by somebody 'suitably' Hindu!

Don't give me any nonsense about living texts - that

there is a god and a goddess. We're supposed to pray to

them, not learn from them. This is the kind of modern

thinking that is ruining India!

 

Et cetera, et cetera, as the King of Siam would say.

 

On the other hand, any number of people (count me [Amrita

Rajan] amongst them) find her work both cool and innovative.

She's obviously put in a lot of effort and it shines

through. But more importantly, she's succeeded in

creating a piece of art that focuses on the immortal

aspects of an ancient story - the story of all of us.

 

Ramayana, the story of the perfect man, whose

perfection demanded he repudiate the woman he loved,

retold as Sitayana, the story of the perfect woman whose

perfection can't protect her. It's not just a religious story,

it's a human story.

 

That central focus on love and loss is one of the reasons

why it has managed to survive so long in so many

different forms. The versions in Sanskrit, Tamil and

Hindi, the repeated references in Bollywood cinema, the

familiarity with the text that cuts through religious

differences, the fan following generated by the TV

serial, the influence spread across Southeast Asia... its

power is apparent.

 

But it's no stranger to controversy either. Not only is the

Ramayana the biggie of all religious texts in India,

surpassing the Bhagwad in popular reference and the

Mahabharata in holiness, its central character, Lord

Rama, has unwittingly been at the eye of a socio

political storm for the past 20 years in India.

 

[edited for brevity]

 

The first five chapters of Sitayana are available on

Youtube.

 

Sita Sings the Blues - Trailer

 

Nina Pilay's Sitayana Chapter 1: Dandaka Dharma

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mx-GWj9JtaE

 

Nina Pilay's Sitayana Chapter 2: The Abduction of Sita

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPqjtiAcyJM

 

Nina Pilay's Sitayana Chapter 3: Hanuman Finds Sita

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUKk1GwXKhc

 

Nina Pilay's Sitayana Chapter 4: Battle of Lanka

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ua2xDO3QjrI

 

Nina Pilay's Sitayana Chapter 5: Trial by Fire

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejhi0hI3tLQ