“SITA SINGS THE BLUES”
Starring Reena Shah, Debargo Sanyal, Nina Paley, Sanjiv Jhaveri
Released Free Online: Feb. 28, 2009

WATCH THE MOVIE

The weirdest, most confusingly beautiful movie I've seen in a long time, and one that is definitely not to be missed on the big screen at Ebertfest.

THERE ARE THOSE dreams whose spells you fall under in a night of deep yet fitful sleep, that make perfect sense until you wake up.

Plots and inherently known subplots abound in crazy colors and ridiculous notions that in consciousness, you would know not to trust, but under the influence of a fluffy pillow, you just can’t help going along with because they’re disguised with bits of subconscious truths to throw you off.

“Sita Sings the Blues” is one of those dreams, and while that’s definitely not a bad thing, I’ve gotta say, this movie is weird. A beautifully mismatched hodge-podge of genres and styles of music, storytelling, and animation, it easily makes you feel like you’re dreaming sometimes, especially if you’re already tired.

It tells two stories. One takes place in modern day and is about an animator named Nina, voiced by and based on the filmmaker and animator Nina Paley (a former Uni student in the early to mid-1980s), whose husband gets a job in India and then breaks up with her by e-mail.

The other is a retelling of the Indian epic poem “Ramayana,” a story apparently known by nearly every school child in India but one that I have never heard of.

The actual poem focuses on a prince named Rama, and his journey to becoming king. This version focuses on his wife, Sita, whose story is rather tragic.

She is kidnapped at one point and forced to marry someone else, but she does not allow him to touch her. Eventually she is rescued and returns to Rama, but he believes she has been with another man and wants nothing to do with her.

But the story is not the point of this film, by any means. It's irrelevant to the mesmerizing animation, an intriguing and pleasantly confusing mix of many different styles of drawings and motion. It's almost as if this movie could not decide how it wanted to be made, and I think if it could have made up its mind it would have basically been boring.

While Nina and her husband stay the same throughout the film, sort of an old-school "Charlie Brown" simplicity with still photographs as backgrounds, Sita and the other characters in her story are animated in three different ways. One is fairly realistic, another is a little less realistic, and the third is a buxom, bright-eyed dream girl made entirely of very large circles and a stick for a waist.

It is this third Sita who moves the film along with the voice of Annette Hanshaw, a 1920s jazz vocalist, in strange musical sequences involving frogs, peacocks, cranes, crocodiles, and other brightly colored creatures.

Three richly decorated "shadow puppets," accompanied by ridiculous Monty Python-style animation, help tell the story, illustrating the arguments that surround the small details of the story.

In every description of the film, the "shadow puppets" are described as "hilarious." I mostly found them to be bothersome. They say a lot in a very small amount of time, interrupting the film's very pleasant pace, and are somewhat hard to follow. They are funny, but definitely not this movie's most redeeming quality.

Regardless, from the drawings to the colors to the music, this is just a beautiful film, even if sometimes it doesn't make a lot of sense. But this may just be one of those times where it doesn't really matter.

While Paley has opted to make the film available for free online, I'd say this is definitely one worth paying to see on the big screen. This movie is without a doubt quite an experience, and you don't want to miss out.

"Sita Sings the Blues" will be shown 2:30 p.m. Saturday at the Virginia Theatre as part of this year's Ebertfest, followed by a discussion with animator and former Uni student Nina Paley. If you miss the festival screening, you can legally watch the movie for free online here.

"SITA SINGS THE BLUES" AT A GLANCE

• Starring: Reena Shah (voice of Sita), Debargo Sanyal (voice of Rama), Nina Paley (voice of Nina), Sanjiv Jhaveri (voice of Dave/ Dasharatha/ Ravana/ Dhobi/ Valmiki), Aseem Chhabra (voice of Narrator Shadow Puppet 1), Bhavana Nagulapally (voice of Narrator Shadow Puppet 2), Manish Acharya (voice of Narrator Shadow Puppet 3), Pooja Kumar (voice of Surphanaka)
• Directed by: Nina Paley
• Written by: Nina Paley
• Genre: Animation
• Rated: Not rated
• Runtime: 82 min.
• Release date: Released free online Feb. 28, 2009
• Summary (from IMDb): An animated version of the epic Indian tale of Ramayana set to the 1920s jazz vocals of Annette Hanshaw. (And that's just scratching the surface!)