With Annette Hanshaw's soulful warbling blues from the 1920s, this film has the requisite musical component we have come to expect from Indian film. But at under an hour-and-a-half it is no epic feat to watch. It manages nonethless to convey both the scope and the jist of the Ramayana, the world's most recounted story. We will each miss our certain pet parts, for me Hanuman's history, but this film stands alone. The second part poses a problem today.
After Ram rescues Sita, should they not live happily ever after? Instead Ram imposes trial by fire and exile on his loyal wife. One of the shadow puppet narrators finds her a push-over. The narrators comment, confuse, forget, invent, update, and wonder throughout the story. This glimpse behind the curtain at the versions and disputes still inspired by the epic proves the genius of both the original epic and the film.
Although the film enhances Sita's perspective, it may rely a bit too much on song to carry the central message of the second half. The first half of the Ramayana is Ram's trumph. The second half is Sita's. If we suspend judgment on a code that demands the highest womanly virtue be purity, we see Sita perfect and resplendant in the flames. It is a whole other kind of hero/ine's journey.
After Ram rescues Sita, should they not live happily ever after? Instead Ram imposes trial by fire and exile on his loyal wife. One of the shadow puppet narrators finds her a push-over. The narrators comment, confuse, forget, invent, update, and wonder throughout the story. This glimpse behind the curtain at the versions and disputes still inspired by the epic proves the genius of both the original epic and the film.
Although the film enhances Sita's perspective, it may rely a bit too much on song to carry the central message of the second half. The first half of the Ramayana is Ram's trumph. The second half is Sita's. If we suspend judgment on a code that demands the highest womanly virtue be purity, we see Sita perfect and resplendant in the flames. It is a whole other kind of hero/ine's journey.
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