Reading Notes: Well Actually Movie Notes pt. 2

Sita Sings the Blues

Rama finds out Sita was pure after all
The woman in the present day gets her heart broken by her husband.
After this a song plays for a couple minutes.  The song sounds like a modern song, I wish that the lyrics were included in subtitles.
Sita becomes pregnant.
She gains a bad reputation for staying in Ravana's house for so long.
This brings shame upon Rama.
This is a big cultural difference between the United States and India.  The United States is a guilt culture while India is a shame culture.
Rama tells his brother, Lakshmana, to take her to the forest and abandon her there.
Rama was king and needed respect from his people.  It is not that he necessarily thought she was unpure, he just wanted to gain favor with people and set an example.
In the forest Sita says that she must have committed terrible sins in the previous life.  In reincarnation, it seems that you pay for your sins in your lives to follow.
She meet Valmiki in the woods and tells him her story.
Valmiki then goes on to write the Ramayana.
Sita has twins.
Valmiki taught the two kids how to sing praises of Rama.
The song that was sung praised Rama but felt a bit sarcastic because it talks about how perfect he is and how he kicked Sita out of his house.
Sita loved Rama despite how he treated her.
Rama goes to the forest and hears two boy singing. He doesn't know who they are, but he is curious.
He learns that the two boys are his sons and tells them to come back to Ayodhya with him.
He sees Sita and asks her to do another trial.  Instead of trial by fire he asks her to do a trial by water  to prove her purity.
If she sinks she is unpure, if she floats she is pure.
Sita asks the gods if she is completely pure, let Mother Earth take her back into her womb.

One of the things that I find really interesting about this version of the Ramayana is that the narrators argue a bit over what actually happens.  This just shows how many different versions have been passed out.  It is likely that each of these narrators heard the story told different ways growing up or throughout their water.


Bibliography

Sita Sings the Blues by Nina Paley

Image Information: Valmiki Writting the Ramayana: Flickr