Have you heard about Sita Sings the Blues yet? Simply: the Ramayana + Annette Hanshaw = zomg. But it’s not simply a platform for 1920s blues music.
The film draws a parallel between the story of Sita and Ram, “a long time ago,” and the story of Nina and Dave (now) as they progress through their relationship. The film shifts between three sets of animations, Dave and Nina, music videos of a sort illustrating the trials and tribulations of Sita and Ram, and a threesome of shadow puppets telling the story from the Ramayana. They’re totally my favorite, the shadow puppets – they sound like three relatives trying to remember a story collectively, filling in the gaps for each other as they go. When I viewed the film the first time, I remarked to my mom how natural they sounded – like they were unscripted. Turns out, that is the case:
From the FAQ –
Q:The narration of the shadow puppets—how much of that was scripted?
A: None – it was completely unscripted, 100% real.
Here’s how I got them all in the studio: I met Manish Acharya (Loins of Punjab Presents) through Manish Vij…I guess Manish V told Manish A to check out Sita, and then Manish A asked me to do animation for a Loins music video, and part of the payment was he’d let me record an interview.
Aseem Chhabra had written about me and Sita and I bumped into him at the Loins of Punjab screening. I asked if he’d lend his voice to an interview and he said yes. He actually met Manish the day of the recording – he interviewed him that morning for an article. They sound like best friends who have known each other forever, and they’re great friends now, but they’d just met that morning.
Bhavana Nagaulapally I met at a play reading of Anuvab Pal… Apparently, I stuck out like a sore thumb because I was the only white woman in the audience, and she asked, “are you Nina Paley?” She had a great voice, and I asked if she’d consent to the interview too. I didn’t know if she would – luckily she showed up, and was awesome, and the rest is history. (source)
They’re all from different regions of India and speak different mother tongues, and grew up on different versions of the story. So naturally they remember “the” Ramayana differently from one another. There is no one Ramayana. Their discussion makes this clear.
Another interesting tidbit about the film is that it’s not copyrighted. It’s under a Creative Commons license. This means that you can watch and/or download it for free – you can even do showings of the film for free. Of course, you should donate to the project if you can – it’s the right thing to do, especially if you’re going to charge at the door – but you don’t have to. It’s a beautiful thing, the accessibility to the work. And if you need a little souvenir at the end, there’s lots of swag to browse through (as well as dvds now – Nina is selling a limited run of them, as copyright laws stipulate that she can only sell so many) in the store.
So all that said, go have a look at the film. It’s just beautiful, and a lovely view.
Apple Tells All 
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March 21, 2011 at 9:18 am
mom
Here’s the story of the singer in the movie
Mom
Biography
Her singing style was relaxed and suited to the new jazz-influenced pop music of the late 1920s. Although she had a low opinion of her own singing, she continued to have fans because she combined the voice of an ingenue with the spirit of a flapper. Hanshaw was known as “The Personality Girl,” and her trademark was saying “That’s all,” in a cheery voice at the end of many of her records.[1]
Between September 1926 and February 1934, she recorded prolifically. From 1926–28 she recorded for Pathe (her sides were released on both the Pathe and Perfect labels). Starting in June 1928, she recorded for Columbia; most of these were issued on their dime store labels Harmony, Diva, Clarion and Velvet Tone. A handful were also released on their regular price Columbia and OKeh. Although most were released under her own name, she was renamed Gay Ellis (for sentimental numbers) and Dot Dare or Patsy Young (for her Helen Kane impersonations). She recorded under a number of other pseudonyms which included Ethel Bingham, Marion Lee, Janet Shaw, and Lelia Sandford. Starting in August 1932, she began recording for the ARC with her recordings issued on their Melotone, Perfect, Conqueror, Oriole and Romeo. Her final session, February 3, 1934 was placed on ARC’s Vocalion label.
Hanshaw made her one and only appearance on film[2] in the 1933 Paramount short Captain Henry’s Radio Show, “a picturization” of the popular Thursday evening radio program Maxwell House Show Boat, in which she starred from 1932 to 1934.
Having grown tired of show business, in the late 1930s Hanshaw retired and settled into married life with her husband, Pathé Records executive Herman “Wally” Rose. Later in life, in a would-be comeback, she recorded two demo records, but they were never released. She died of cancer in 1985 at New York Hospital after a long illness; she was living in Manhattan at that time.[3]
Collections of Hanshaw’s recording were released on Audio CD in 1999 by Sensation Records. Another revival of interest occurred in 2008 with the indie animated feature Sita Sings the Blues, which retold the Indian epic poem the Ramayana from Sita’s perspective by setting scenes from it to performances by Hanshaw.[4] More recently, her 1929 song “Daddy Won’t You Please Come Home” was featured in the video game Bioshock 2 in 2010.
[edit]Birthdate
For many years it was believed that Annette had been born in 1910 and began her recording career shortly before her 16th birthday. However, it has recently come to light that she was in fact[5] born nine years earlier, making her 24 at the time of her first commercial recording in September 1926. Her nephew, Frank W. Hanshaw III, has confirmed 1901 as the date on her birth certificate.[6]