In her multilayered multidimensional animation film "Sita Sings The Blues" , Nina Paley attempts to retell an old Hindu epic the Ramayana. The film started out as a series of cartoons published on Internet by Paley. Inspired by Annette Hanshaw’s songs, her travel to India followed by tragic breakup with ex-husband, Nina decided to put it together and tell "her Ramayana". Short colorful cartoons uploaded to Internet were highly appraised by general public but got criticism from conservative Hindus due to sometimes frivolous Americanized images of Sita that bared striking resemblance with Betty Boop; and comic depiction of the story (Biswas). Later, Paley took criticism in consideration while creating the final film.
According to Ramanujan, there are three types of Hindu texts translation: iconic, indexical and symbolic. Iconic, in his understanding, is a "faithful" translation that preserves the plot and characters as they are. Indexical translation adds a local "touch" to translation preserving basic elements of the initial piece. The third "symbolic" type used plot and character to say new things and discuss new ideas (Long). In her film "Sita Sings the Blues", Nina Paley incorporates all three types of translation differentiating them by visual means she uses. Nina's stories has several dimensions, each drawn and animated in a different style.
The first dimension is Nina's story that starts in a modern world San Francisco, takes place in India and New York and follows the basic plot of the Sita's story. At the beginning she has a perfect life with her husband that gets a proposition to work in India. After six months apart, Nina follows her husband and moves too. Unfortunately their relationship changes: her husband doesn't love her anymore and they break up. The style Nina uses to tell the milder day story is so called squigglevision animation. Having appeared in the end of 20th century and widely used on television, that kind of animation is perfect to separate the modern interpretation from the old story. The second dimension is the story told with classic Annette Hanshaw songs. Annette being popular in the U.S. in 20th, sings about joy and tragedy of love. In this case, Paley uses completely different style of animation. Her Sita is a cartoonish curvy round-eyed woman that strikingly resembles Betty Boop. Rama is depicted as a muscular handsome man. Whatever event happens in the main story, Sita would sing a song about it in Hanshaw's voice. These two styles are made in flash animation. Even though it is sometimes hard to tell apart indexical and symbolic translations, in my opinion, these two dimensions represent indexical translation, as both cases Paley adapted or localized the plot to both modern and 1920th reality, not trying to say anything new or discuss new ideas.
The third dimension is the narration done by two Indian men and one woman, represented as shadow puppets. It should be mentioned, that historically shadow puppets were used by different nations to tell stories and "teach" (Currell). The similar role they play in "Sita Sings the Blues", trying to tell the story, interpret it and discuss its implications. Some parts of the story and Hindu views are challenged by narrators. They discuss the topics of pureness and rape, bring up plot controversies and discuss new ideas, such as gender issues and relationship problems. Their doubts about the plot, mistakes they make while trying recollect the names and reinterpretation they try to make, represents unstable ever-changing plot of Ramayana and its many interpretations. Pertaining features of indexical type of translation, it is still more close to symbolic translation, as it conveys new ideas a views.
“Shadow puppets” is one of the two styles the animator used in this dimension. The other style is the collage made out of cut-out book or magazine classic Indian illustrations. Paper figures seem to move on a painted background resembling an old-style animation. This style merely illustrates narration done by puppet figures and is a perfect example of iconic translation as the plot, the characters and the images are authentic and is usually followed by direct narration by characters. The direct narration is once again differentiated from others with the use of another style, which is represented by classical Indian style of painting (either made by gouache or water colors). In this style all characters have elongated protuberant eyes, Indian facial features. It is also represents an iconic translation, being the most "iconic" part of the film.
Being yet another interpretation of the Ramayana, the film shows that the ideas conveyed in the story are still true for modern day reality after over 2500 years. And it doesn't matter if the director is Hindu or not since, although fundamentalists would argue the opposite, there is no set story or correct interpretation. This is one of those epics that are told from mouth to mouth from generation to generation, and in the end nobody remembers the initial story. The beautiful soulful film pays respect to the old Hindu legend in the best way possible - by showing that ideas and problems it brings up are eternal and relatable no matter what background or religious beliefs a viewer has.
Works Cited
Biswas, Soutik. "Ramayana: An 'epic' controversy." BBC News. BBC, 19 Oct. 2011. Web. 17 Dec. 2014.
Bose, Mandakranta. The Rāmāyaṇa Revisited. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2004. Web. 17 Dec. 2014.
Currell, David. Shadow Puppets & Shadow Play. Ramsbury: Crowood Press, 2007. Print.
Long, Lynne. "Making Sanskrit or Making Strange? How Should We Translate Classical Hindu Texts?" Translation and Religion: Holy Untranslatable?. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 2005. Print.
Richman, Paula. "Three Hundred Ramayanas: Five Examples and Three Thoughts on Translation." Many Rāmāyaṇas: The Diversity of a Narrative Tradition in South Asia. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991. 22-48. Web. 17 Dec. 2014.
