This animation takes a different perspective at the Ramayana from that of Sita rather than the more prevalent male versions that we have grown up to. the film is presented in a multi threaded format with two of the threads going in parallel as a narrative & analysis of the Ramayana by puppet characters and the actual story told by first person performance and jazz recitals by Sita and the third from the life of the director Nina Paley. The narrative thread played by the puppets is kind of a modern day analysis of Ramayana and the various intricacies of the story. Puppets complement and comprehend each others doubts and take a looks at the characters with a contemporary outlook. This thread felt like second generation NRIs explaining their scant knowledge of the Ramayana to their adolescents. Their doubts bring forward the picture of the Indian male dominant society and the various strata in the Indian society and about the women in general. They also post various doubts which will seem quite blasphemous to the new guardians of Indian culture and may even lead to the complete boycott of this wonderful piece of art.
As the puppets doubt and conclude upon a certain section of the story, it switches to Sita's perspective of the actual story. Most of the actual story is told by Sita's jazz performance. Various blues genre songs are used to provide the wonderful narration of love, romance, loss, despair, hope and divinity.
The third thread is from the life of the director herself. It speaks of how she and her husband were having a wonderful married life, how it was torn apart and how she redempted herself by turning herself into the solace of Ramayana. I believe she is trying to draw parallels with her story and that of Sita by interspersing her story inside a Ramayana narrative (she was dumped by her husband who she loved so dearly; after all that’s what it seems to be).
In all, this is a wonderful endeavor from Nina Paley. most of the animation is done by her as well as the direction, animation, editing, story etc. the animation for the three threads are done in three different styles - the main story when told from first person uses the kind of Rajput drawing technique prevalent in the 15-18th century. The narrative from the puppets is told with a kind of collage type animation (animated photographic composition). The directors life story is told in squiggle vision. I believe this blends in quite beautifully with the film. The actual story is in bright high quality animation which signifies the clarity of the first person perspective of the narration itself. The second thread as narrated by the puppets is a collage as they are collecting all their ideas and opinions with whatever information they had from the different sources. Finally squiggle vision for the director's life story may be the dramatization of her unkempt life and the emotional turmoil she might have gone through.
For those who have seen Anurag Kashyap’s Dev-D, the psychology of the puppet narrative may seem familiar; the Ramayana is told without changing anything in the story but rather analyzing the character of Sita in depth no one has ever gone through cinema (or the animated cinema at least).
