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IMDbPro

Sita Sings the Blues

  • 20082008
  • Not RatedNot Rated
  • 1h 22m
IMDb RATING
7.6/10
4.7K
YOUR RATING
Sita Sings the Blues (2008)
  • Animation
  • Comedy
  • Fantasy
An animated version of the epic Indian tale of Ramayana set to the 1920s jazz vocals of Annette Hanshaw.An animated version of the epic Indian tale of Ramayana set to the 1920s jazz vocals of Annette Hanshaw.An animated version of the epic Indian tale of Ramayana set to the 1920s jazz vocals of Annette Hanshaw.
IMDb RATING
7.6/10
4.7K
YOUR RATING
  • Director
    • Nina Paley
  • Writers
    • Nina Paley
    • Valmiki(book "The Ramayana")
  • Stars
    • Annette Hanshaw(archive sound)
    • Aseem Chhabra(voice)
    • Bhavana Nagulapally(voice)
Top credits
  • Director
    • Nina Paley
  • Writers
    • Nina Paley
    • Valmiki(book "The Ramayana")
  • Stars
    • Annette Hanshaw(archive sound)
    • Aseem Chhabra(voice)
    • Bhavana Nagulapally(voice)
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 44User reviews
    • 66Critic reviews
    • 93Metascore
  • See production, box office & company info
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 7 wins & 3 nominations

    Photos7

    Sita Sings the Blues (2008)
    Sita Sings the Blues (2008)
    Sita Sings the Blues (2008)
    Sita Sings the Blues (2008)
    Sita Sings the Blues (2008)
    Sita Sings the Blues (2008)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Annette Hanshaw
    • Sita (singing)as Sita (singing)
    • (archive sound)
    Aseem Chhabra
    • Narrator - Shadow Puppet 1as Narrator - Shadow Puppet 1
    • (voice)
    Bhavana Nagulapally
    • Narrator - Shadow Puppet 2as Narrator - Shadow Puppet 2
    • (voice)
    Manish Acharya
    Manish Acharya
    • Narrator - Shadow Puppet 3as Narrator - Shadow Puppet 3
    • (voice)
    Reena Shah
    Reena Shah
    • Sitaas Sita
    • (voice)
    Sanjiv Jhaveri
    • Daveas Dave
    • (voice)
    • …
    Pooja Kumar
    Pooja Kumar
    • Surphanakaas Surphanaka
    • (voice)
    Debargo Sanyal
    • Ramaas Rama
    • (voice)
    Alaudin Ullah
    • Mareechaas Mareecha
    • (voice)
    • (as Aladdin Ullah)
    • …
    Nitya Vidyasagar
    Nitya Vidyasagar
    • Luvas Luv
    • (voice)
    • …
    Nina Paley
    • Ninaas Nina
    • (voice)
    Deepti Gupta
    Deepti Gupta
    • Kaikeyias Kaikeyi
    • (voice)
    • Director
      • Nina Paley
    • Writers
      • Nina Paley
      • Valmiki(book "The Ramayana")
    • All cast & crew
    • See more cast details at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      There are two cats in the film - Lexi and Bruno. Lexi is the striped cat that Nina and Dave had in San Francisco. Bruno is the black cat that Nina has in her apartment in New York. According to Nina Paley's Director's Commentary, Bruno does, in fact, sleep in Nina's armpit, as shown at the end of the movie.
    • Goofs
      The musicians are shown playing with the left and right hands reversed. The clarinet, like all woodwinds, is played with the left hand at the top. The violin is held with the left hand and bowed with the right. But in the movie, the clarinet player has the right hand at the top, and the violin is held with the right and bowed with the left.
    • Quotes

      Rama: Assemble the monkey warriors!

    • Crazy credits
      Sita Body Double - Ducky Sherwood Beloved Cult Leader - Mike Caprio Temple Construction Supervisor - Thomas Matthew Swain Kitty Trainer - Ari Kangas Duck Wrangler - Duck Studios Chameleon Handler - Elizabeth Paley
    • Connections
      Featured in The Nostalgia Chick: Lindsay's Top Eleven Favorite Movies of All Time! (This Week) (2012)
    • Soundtracks
      Sita in Space
      Composed and Performed by Todd Michaelsen

      Published by Dragon's Lair (ASCAP)

    User reviews44

    Review
    Top review
    10/10
    the best animated musical of the decade... sorta
    Nina Paley is the kind of filmmaker that makes the auteur theory look dated. This isn't a case of a director putting her vision on the screen via a crew of technicians and a cast of actors. This IS her vision, down to all of the designs and animation, which she did over the course of five years (a dedication of time that recalls a director like David Lynch on Eraserhead or Inland Empire). It was all done on computer- reportedly only one intern helped animate some of a battle sequence- and it's being presented for free on the website for Sita Sings the Blues. And yet, if you have a chance (as I had) to see it on the big screen, it's one of the events of the year if you love animation and daring in film-making.

    It's a personal story of Paley's break-up with her boyfriend (who did it, savagely, over email), and put into a context of the story of the Ramayana, an ancient Indian story about a woman, Sita, and her bond with the blue-skinned Rama over a lifetime. At the same time Paley uses animation and music and documentary and the free-wheeling expression of cinema to make it unconventional. We see Indian drawing figures ala Monty Python animation discussing story points as they go along, which name is who's and what detail really happened, etc. And then there are musical segments put to Annette Hanshaw, a 1920's jazz singer, to illustrate Sita's journey through the turbulent ups and downs of romance.

    Sita Sings the Blues is joyous entertainment. One can tell that Paley was exorcising some past strife, namely from her own break-up that we see in the film in a scraggly Dr. Katz style of animation, but what's most striking is how it's tragedy is never ever a downer. On the contrary this is a comedy in a fresh sense, where the absurdity keeps coming in little unexpected ways, like with the figures of the monkeys in battle, or how the discussing members talk over the details of the Sita cast members. And the musical numbers are just about the best one has seen all decade (which goes without saying the lack of competition, but still), as we see Sita sing her feelings and thoughts, sometimes in happiness and sometimes totally down in the dumps (re: her pregnancy and abandonment after being rescued).

    There's a complex web of emotions that Paley navigates through, and she does it so confidently that it's hard not to marvel at her achievements here. It's an independent film in the best sense of the word, the truest sense, uncompromised by studio interference or for any kind of 'demographic'. It's a dark comic feminist musical fable that includes an intermission, a cast of hundreds (animated, not voiced), and it strikes up your heartstrings in the best possible ways. It's a post-modern breakthrough, and I can't wait to revisit it, oh, right about now I would say.
    helpful•12
    1
    • Quinoa1984
    • Dec 30, 2009

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • August 12, 2009 (France)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Official sites
      • Official site
      • Official site (France)
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Sita peva bluz
    • Production company
      • Adam DeZayas Pictures
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Gross worldwide
      • $12,619
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 22 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Digital
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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