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Compare and Contrast “The Ramayana of Valmiki(the Indian epic poem) and Nina Paley’s Sita Sings the Blues (the modern film)”

Love, trust, and emotions can test the faith of loved ones. The poem “The Ramayana of Valmiki (the Indian epic poem) and Nina Paley’s Sita Sings the Blues (modern film) presented love and trust in the family systems. Ramayana of Valmiki has described the historical situations very clearly because it belongs to the religious beliefs of Hindus. While the movie Sita sings the Blues is a comedy movie showed the story comically. Sita was loyal and devoted to her husband, though she was abducted; still, she was waiting for her husband Rama to rescue her. Respect and honor go a long way. Nina Paley directed an animated movie whose main theme was heartbreaks, in this movie the narrator married a man who later on deceived her. Here we will discuss the true love of Sita and Rama, and the fake love of Dave.

The story of Ramayana teaches a lot of values such as love, respect, and loyalty. Rama was a devoted son, husband, and father who did as much as he could to be there for his family until a few battles came his way. Rama was the son of a king named Dasaratha, who adored him very much and wanted him to be the next king of his throne. for this purpose king wanted to give this good news to his son Rama, meanwhile, one of his queens named Kaikeyi wanted things to be different. Kaikeyi was brainwashed by the former maid that if Rama became king a lot of bad things would happen. She told Kaikeyi that if Rama becomes the king he may even go as far as killing Kaikeyi and her son named Bharata. The former maid convinced Kaikeyi to tell the king that he should make his other son Bharata the new king while sending Rama away into a forest for fourteen years. The king had no choice but to follow through even though he realized that his elder son would be hurt by this decision. This news was very devastating for Rama but he always obeyed his father so he agreed what was commanded by his father and Kaikeyi. Eventually, Rama had explained to his wife Sita and his mother that he had to depart because it was the order from his father and the Kaikeyi. Sita was sad but was willing to flee with him. Rama’s brother Lakshamana who was utmost loyal to his brother decided that he will also go with him. In the end, the king Dasaratha dies in his other wife Kausalya’s arms.

From the story of Rama and Sita we learned that in heartbreaking always present a set of important choices: you can either open to it and allow it to soften and strengthen you, or you can fight it tooth and nail and turn away from it, which is tantamount to giving it permission to harden your heart. Far more than mere fodder for movies and pop songs, a broken heart is a night of the soul, let there be no doubt about it. In the movie, we have evidence of a heartbreaking incident when Dave who left his wife in San Francisco, and when she goes to India to see her husband. She was notified by an email that he no longer loves her. The main difference in these two stories is the true love and the fake love of the men. According to Balakrishnan and Hamid, (2018) Hinduism is the religion that focuses on ethics and spiritualism. The Ramayana is an old epic that summarized the basic philosophy of Hinduism.

The story of Nina Paley’s Sita Sings the Blues(the modern film) displays a failed relationship. This movie displays the narrator’s relationship with her husband and the relationship of Sita with her husband Rama. Sita is your perfect wife who loves her husband dearly. After getting Sita back Rama believes Sita has been unfaithful to him and wants her to prove her purity. To prove her purity she agrees to walk through fire. Sita takes off into Valmiki’s ashram alone and pregnant. She eventually gives birth to two twin boys named Lava and Kusa. One day Rama comes and finds these twin boys and finds out that they are his. Rama decides to take Sita back but once again he wants her to prove her purity. Sita was emotionally overwhelmed and asked the mother earth to take her back. The relationship with the narrator Nina is about her husband leaving and abandoning her. The husband gets a job in India and moved there after telling her he was only going for a few weeks. Nina had her life back in New York and felt sad so the husband told her to visit him in India. She leaves and goes to India but had to come back for work. She told the husband she would go for only a week. When she returns to New York the husband breaks up with her through email and told her not to come back. Nina was so heartbroken and didn’t know what to do with herself. She eventually continued her book and bonded with her cat (Dodd, 2016).

The views of both stories are similar yet the same. The views on gender roles such as who is powerful and the sexist roles when a man does wrong versus when women do wrong are different compared to today’s world. For example in “The Ramayana of Valmiki” the way how the King had to obey his wife command by granting her to have her son be king because of her helping him survive in the past. When is it okay to get rid of one son to please another son. That was very unfair. All of his kids should b treated equally. If the role was reversed she would have a heart and do things the right way. Also, the fact that this king is allowed to have more than one wife all at once and they all loved his so dearly with no complaints was an appalling tome. If the roles were reversed no man would accept the fact queens having more than one king and them being okay with it. In the movie “Sita Sings the Blues” Sita was so loyal and love Rama dearly. She then gets kidnapped and Rama had to rescue her. After he rescues her he wanted her to prove that she was pure to him. If the roles were reversed Sita wouldn’t even think like that she would’ve just accepted him back. It is not fair that a woman who was always loyal to her husband and at the end her husband wanted her to show evidence of her purity.

References

Balakrishnan, P., & Hamid, R. A. (2018). Valmiki Ramayana: A Spiritual Hermeneutic Reading. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ACADEMIC RESEARCH IN BUSINESS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES, 8(10), 1235-1244.

Dodd, K. V. (2016). Sita sings the blues. Journal of Religion & Film, 13(2), 16.

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