Source: blogs.suntimes.com
USA, December 23, 2008 (By Roger Ebert, film critic): I received a DVD with a whimsically named movie, “Sita Sings the Blues,” and almost did not watch it. And then I finally did. My reaction? I am enchanted. I am swept away. I am smiling from one end of the film to the other. It is astonishingly original.
Nina Paley, the animated movie’s author, begins with the story of Ramayana, which is known to every school child in India but not to me. Paley depicts the story with exuberant drawings in bright colors.
Of course there is a lot more to it than that, involving a monkey army, a lustful king who occasionally grows 10 heads, synchronized birds, a chorus line of gurus, and a tap-dancing moon. It coils around and around, as Indian epic tales are known to do. Even the Indians can’t always figure them out. In addition to her characters talking, Paley adds another level of dialogue: Three voice-over modern Indians, ad-libbing as they try to get the story straight. Was Sita wearing jewelry or not? How long was she a prisoner in exile? How did the rescue monkey come into the picture? These voices are as funny as an SNL skit, and the Indian accent gives them charm.
Beginning in Chicago, I will enlist a cadre of starving art teachers, vengeful wives and resourceful Indian-Americans. They will break into the houses of film lovers, throw mails bag over their heads, chain them to seats in a movie theater, and allow them to watch “Sita Sings the Blues.” If they don’t love it, let ’em sue me.
[You can watch “Sita Sings the Blues” for free at www.sitasingstheblues.com ]