Explorations in Religious Identity (RE 300 WR)

Adaptation and retelling by nature is a product of one’s worldview, and many religious groups have claimed the Rama stories as their own infusing the text with, “local detail, folklore, poetic traditions, imagery, and so forth”(45).  There are so many versions of the Ramayana that the text is only recognizable as a Rama story through names and relations of the characters. For each retelling there are different beginnings, endings, and character traits. Some even worship Ravana and uplift Sita as greater than Rama (43). Some call Sita unfaithful and Rama a simple man (44). Within Sita Sings the Blues, the narrating characters bicker about the plot and character details within the story. It is not difficult to see why they bicker about the finer points when the stories differ “in Sanskrit and in the other Indian languages” (39). One of the clearest points of discussion is the ending in which “one ends with the return of Rama and Sita to Ayodhya,” but for others the story concludes with “Rama hear(ing) Sita slandered as a woman who lived in Ravana’s grove, and in the name of his reputation as a king…he banishes her to the forest” (39) In Sita Sings the Blues, however, the narrators and writer Nina seem to agree Sita is completely mistreated, something that is highlighted in the film’s use of blues music. After following Dave to India, Nina recognizes the connections between her own story and Sita’s plight after Dave’s rejection. In providing Sita with a voice, Nina, herself,  finds closure and connection with Sita. Though, instead of a grove full of raksasa, Nina is trapped in a New York apartment surrounded by a different kind of demon--roaches.