Cartoonist and PH resident Nina Paley is slowly turning the narrative of Ramayana (a Hindu Sanskrit epic) into a series of remarkable animations set to a soundtrack of scratchy old 78s. The result is Sita Sings the Blues, a “self-animated, unfunded, destined-to- drive-me-to- the-poorhouse feature-in-progress.”
Nina describes the latest chapter, Hanuman Finds Sita: “Gags, gimmicks, AND narrative – hundreds of pages of text crammed into 3 minutes. Plus it contains all 4 main characters: Sita, Rama, Hanuman and Ravana, with extra added bonus demons … People already familiar with the Ramayana will probably enjoy these musical bits more, but I’m trying to make the story understandable to anyone.”
You can view the entire video (~25MB) here: “The compression knocked out significant detail of this web version, especially in the night scenes. But overall I think it’s a good’un.”
haven’t had this much fun with the ramayana since i read the amar chitra katha comics as a kid. thanks!!
I downloaded one of the stories and it’s awesome then I showed it to an idian guy I work with and he loved it and he said the story was on point.