Nina’s heavenly delights
Nina Paley’s animated gorgeousity has evolved from the last time I got a look, gaining a puppet voiceover among other changes. Props for finally finishing this painstakingly-animated labor of lusciousness and pain:
[Sita Sings the Blues] is narrated by… shadow puppets… voiced by journalist Aseem Chhabra, consultant Bhavana Nagulapally and Loins of Punjab Presents director Manish Acharya… The dialogues… are “intentionally stilted, sort of a homage to some of the beloved but painfully stiff Ramayana retellings I’ve read…”
She also had to field angry reactions from Hindu fundamentalists. “They seem upset that Hindus are perceived as peaceful and tolerant… I call them the Troll Sena…” With big breasts, a waist the size of a napkin ring and large hips, Sita would look right at home in Khajuraho. [Time Out Mumbai — sub. required]
Sita was always a babe, of course, and the fundies have no problem with Rama’s bulging deltoids.
The score includes My Pet Dragon, Rudresh Mahantappa, Rohan, and the French band Masala Dosa. Voice actors include Debargo Sanyal (Avenue Queens, Seven.11), Sanjiv Jhaveri (Loins, The Leopard and the Fox), Pooja Kumar (Flavors, the Bombay Dreams ads), comedian Aladdin Ullah, Deepti Gupta (The War Within) and Nitya Vidyasagar (Serendib). For cross-media collaboration, Brooklyn is clearly the Silicon Valley of the arts.
Here’s the new trailer. Did anyone check out the sneak preview?
on Thursday, November 29th, 2007, 9:59 am in Animation, Art, Film, Religion › 
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And we’re having a sneak preview in San Francisco this Saturday, Dec. 1 at 10 pm. Details here.
Congrats, Nina.
will there be any more NYC shows in the next few months?
Simply beautiful stylised artwork and interpretation of this great narrative of Indian civilisation. Nina, put some clips on youtube!
I am smitten by your work!
Thanks, y’all.
I’ve submitted it to the Tribeca festival; if they accept it, that will be the NY (and North American) premiere. If not, then sometime later in 2008. The festival system is hard on small filmmakers, they want everything to be a premiere, disqualifying films that have been shown in theaters. That’s why these are small “friends and family” previews, not in real theaters, and we’re only requesting donations, not selling tickets.
Faaaabulous!!
A hearty “wonderful, lovely, and fantastic!” from Urbana!
I saw the sneak preview with a friend in NYC and loved it!!!
Traderjanki, you were there?? I love your food blog and want to get vegetarian gourmet food with you! How could I have missed such a golden opportunity?
How so awesome. Congrats!
Nina’s labor of love is truly delightful! Explosive visual style, hilarious sense of narrative and Annette Shaw’s intoxicating voice (Can I just say Nina has impeccable taste in music) left me reeling!
I heart SSTB.
This looks freakin’ epic. I’ll see y’all tonight.
vow this looks really cool..
hope this opens everywhere in US or comes to indianapolis so that we can watch
‘Twas epic indeed. I hope this gets the exposure it deserves.
If you go to: http://www.berlinale.de/en/programm/berlinale_programm/datenblatt.php?film_id=20081891 it shows that the final 82-minute full-length version of this film is receiving its world premiere screening at the prestigious 58th Annual Berlin International Film Festival in Germany this week! This is a wonderful achievement for any film, especially a desi-themed one. Hearty congratulations to Nina Paley on the burgeoning success of her labour of love project. I look forward to seeing it when it screens somewhere in New York City.
Looks like a great film. Which character voice is Debargo Sanyal doing? I am a fan of his acting. I have seen quite a few of his various stage appearances in New York,. He has very good comedy acting talents. I also went to a screening last year of Manish Acharya film “Loins of Punjab Presents” and enjoyed it very much–very funny.