5 Stars!

Originally when I first heard we were going to be watching a movie in this class, I got a little scared. The first thoughts that went through my head were, “Is this going to be exactly what I just read and I won’t be able to understand all of the big words and names?”. However, I was pleasantly surprised when the movie began and the screen filled with a woman rising above water, standing on top of a flower, dancing.

            I really appreciated this fun and interesting movie based on the Ramayana of Valmiki. I could easily relate to black figures that were narrating. They would continuously mess up pronunciations, become confused with what happened next and also not fully understand why something was happening at a certain point. This was very relieving to me, considering it is exactly how I feel when reading such a daunting document with information I’ve never really learned before. It was funny to hear them mispronounce huge names and confuse the next things that happen because that’s what happens to me when I read these documents or am taking notes in class. As other students have mentioned in their blog posts, I also liked how the black figures said, “Don’t challenge these stories.” This is exactly how one should think at times when reading a text. Sometimes, a person just needs to read a story and not become obsessed with each little detail. One must try and understand the bigger picture and not just some of the confusing tiny aspects that can distract the reader from the main idea.

The movie was successfully able to find the humor in the complicated story of Ramayana. All of the animations and the music made the story much more interesting and more easily understood. Furthermore, I really liked the modern parallel between Sita and Nina. Nina, at the beginning of the movie, is happily married to her husband, Dave, in San Francisco. Dave then takes a job in India, where he and Nina have limited contact. She finally joins Dave in India, however when she arrives, he pretty much rejects her, seeming very distant. Later on, Nina flies to New York for a meeting, where she receives an email from Dave, that tells her not to come back. Overall, this parallel allows the viewer to understand a simpler idea of the story, where both Nina and Sita remain devoted to their men, and the men come off as selfish jerks. Although it’s simple and light-hearted, it is extremely knowledgeable.

In all, I really liked this movie and found it to be extremely relatable and actually allowed me to understand the story more than when I initially read about Ramayana. A very good choice!