Reading Diary B: Sita Sings the Blues

It seems like the entire first half of Sita Sings the Blues was devoted to setting up the second half.  Right after the intermission, Dave breaks up with Nina over email.  All he says is "Don't come back."  This harsh email is an enormous criticism of Rama and shows the the writers of the film think Rama is extremely cold and neglectful.

The Dhobi is mentioned a couple times in Sita Sings the Blues.  I don't remember him being mentioned in the PDE Ramayana.  A Dhobi is a washerman.  We hear that the Dhobi beats his wife and refuses to take her back after she has been with another man, saying that he is not like Rama.  Then Rama decides that he needs the respect of his subjects and banishes Sita.  Rama is portrayed as extremely cold, and he even walks on his pregnant wife at one point.

Rama Walking on Sita

From Sita Sings the Blues by Nina Paley

At 1:04 Sita has twins in the forest.  Which leaves me wondering: what are the sons of avatars?  Are they demigods, gods, or mortals?  As the twins sing their song about Rama, the writers take another kick at Rama by making the songs as hypocritical as possible.  They sing: "Sing his love.  Sing his praise.  Rama set his wife ablaze" then, "Duty first.  Sita last."

Next, we go back to Nina in New York.  She dials Dave and pleads with him to take her back.  I noticed that she dials 16 numbers to make her call.  However, a call to India should only be 15 numbers (011 - US exit code, 91 India country code, then 10 digits in the Indian phone number).

When Sita is swallowed up by the Earth, she is portrayed as vengeful.  At this point, I realized that her fingers are entirely red.  I'm not sure if this is supposed to be finger nail polish or something else, but to me, it looks like her fingers are covered in blood.  I also noticed that the film doesn't show Rama's departure from the Earth.

The last scene shows Nina reading the Ramayana, seemingly over her depression about Dave.  I did not realize that this story was from her own experience until I saw the note in the credits about her cat.  According to the introduction of a talk Nina gave, this story details the end of her marriage.