Epics of India

For my extra credit reading this week, I chose to write about the second part of Sita Sings the Blues. For this part, I chose to focus on the setting. It’s interesting how the creators used the different scenes in day and night to help the viewers associate certain moods or motives within the plot. Night time generally is either associated with trickery or love, while the fighting and talking takes place more during the day. I enjoyed how the different settings were only used to portray a single idea or action, whereas most of the other discussions took place between the three narrators. This made the story much more easy to follow. Generally when traveling is involved, the creators go to lengths to make the environment seem as vast as possible. I’m unsure of why this is, but they’re fairly consistent with it and it seems to add to the plot. It’s also interesting how everything is done symmetrically. Everyone lines up evenly, when rakshashas die, they die in even numbers on bot...

For the reading these week, I chose to watch Sita Sings the Blues, and these notes will cover the first half of the movie. For this half, I wanted to focus on character development. First, I enjoyed the discussion at the beginning introducing all the characters. They seem to be somewhat confused which made me feel a bit better about being as confused as I was when they were all introduced. It’s also interesting how they introduce Sita as a follower and someone who would live in the shadow of their significant other, when we know this not to be true as the story unfolds. The other side of Ravana that is revealed in the movie is also fascinating. In the Ramayana version that I read, he is portrayed to basically be this devil king, but in the movie he is described a a fairly good king, with the only negative thing he did being kidnapping Sita. The movie also goes to great lengths to show Sita’s loyalty to Rama, so it will be interesting how they show her relationship with Rama devel...

After several long days they were finally back together, and it was hard to believe that what they’d been through was real. Congressman Rama sat in embrace with Sita and thought about what had transpired.  3 days ago, Rama had been cleaning up the kitchen after dinner when he heard a scream come from the living room. He took off towards the room only to find a broken window and shattered glass covering the floor.  “Sita? Sita!”, he called out, but no answer was heard.  When the police arrived to their home, an investigation began, and it was determined that Sita had been kidnapped. By who they weren’t sure, but it seemed like Rama had been targeted due to his powerful position.  A few days passed without.a word. The police continued their investigation efforts, and Rama drove around town trying to find anyone who may be able to help, but nothing turned up. Then suddenly on the third day, Rama left his home to find a note taped to the front door. The ...