Tag Archive for 'Indian epic'

Hindu goddess as Betty Boop? It’s personal

Published
by
asianwindow
on February 16, 2009
in Art
. 0 Comments

The cartoonist Nina Paley mixes an ancient epic with the story of her own collapsing marriage. From The New York Times:

A scene from the animated feature “Sita Sings the Blues”

A scene from the animated feature “Sita Sings the Blues”

What do a 3,000-year-old Sanskrit epic, a ’20s-era jazz singer and Indonesian shadow puppets have in common? They’re all part of the eclectic cultural tapestry that is “Sita Sings the Blues,” an 82-minute animated feature that combines autobiography with a retelling of the classic Indian myth the Ramayana, and that required its creator, the syndicated comic-strip artist Nina Paley, to spend three years transforming herself into a one-woman moving-picture studio.

“At some point everything went through my computer,” said Ms. Paley, who is self-taught and whose longest animated film before this -- of a dog chasing a ball -- clocked in at just over four minutes. Her decision to do it herself may have satisfied her creative urges, but it also put her more than $20,000 in debt. “That’s why not everyone does it,” she said.

More: Below, a video clip

Ramayan 3392 AD — the movie

Published
by
asianwindow
on December 29, 2008
in Art and Movies
. 0 Comments

From Wired:

ramayana

With Hollywood hitting up comic books for blockbusters, a new comics publisher is looking to India for ideas. “The world is increasingly realizing that India is a source for creativity and great ideas, not just a back office to execute them more cheaply,” said Gotham Chopra, part of the management team at Los Angeles-based Liquid Comics.

One of the first projects for the publisher will be bringing its Ramayan 3392 AD (pictured) – a colorful, 21st-century re-imagining of Indian literary epic the Ramayana – to movie theaters. Liquid has teamed up with Mandalay Pictures and 300 producer Mark Canton for the film, which has a planned release date of 2011.

Chopra talked with Wired.com about Liquid’s birth, a new wave of Indian comics artists and the challenge of bringing an ancient Sanskrit epic to the silver screen.

Wired.com: Condensing the Ramayana into a comic book must have been hard, but condensing it into a film seems harder. What do you think about the challenge, and how do you think it will do with audiences unfamiliar with the venerable narrative’s mythology?

Gotham Chopra: Can you say, “Trilogy?” Seriously, this is something we’ve talked about at length even in relation to the original comic series. Obviously, our goal is to create a narrative structure that doesn’t require a familiarity with the original story. That’s an important note, not only so that people who have never heard of Ramayan can enjoy it, but also so those who are familiar with it are not offended by the film.

More:

Bhagavad Gita — the opera

Published
by
asianwindow
on October 1, 2008
in Music
. 0 Comments

The Brooklyn Academy of Music is presenting the Bhagavad Gita in the form of a 70-minute chamber opera, “Arjuna’s Dilemma,” by Douglas C. Cuomo. An Indian singer, Amit Chatterjee, “improvises segments of the score in raga style, in Sanskrit.” From the New York Times:

Stephanie Berger Photography

A scene from Arjuna's Dilemma / Stephanie Berger Photography

On the eve of battle Arjuna surveys the field in despair. The enemy battalions are thick with beloved kinsmen, teachers, comrades. His cause is just. But what is he to do? His charioteer urges him to embrace his duty.

Action is better than inaction, the charioteer argues. Nothing is better for a warrior than a legitimate battle. Either you will be killed and attain heaven, or you will prevail and enjoy life on earth. Finally the charioteer assumes his true form as Krishna: time, destroyer of worlds, “the existent and the nonexistent.” Kill your enemies, he commands. “Be the instrument, for I have already killed them.” Arjuna resolves to do Krishna’s bidding.

Written in Sanskrit more than 2,000 years ago, the Bhagavad-Gita, has been called the bible of Indian civilization. It forms a 700-verse episode in the oceanic “Mahabharata,” which in India has served as a source for drama for centuries. In the West, Peter Brook adapted “The Mahabharata” for the stage in epic style. And on Nov. 5 the Brooklyn Academy of Music presents the Bhagavad-Gita in the intimate guise of a 70-minute chamber opera, “Arjuna’s Dilemma,” by Douglas C. Cuomo.

More:

And in the Washington Post:

Cuomo is best known to the world as the composer of the theme for Sex and the City; he’s also a jazz guitarist. In this opera, he blends classical Indian singing, jazz improv, the busy minimalist-style patterns that appear to have entered the bloodstream of so many composers and the jewel-like tones of a four-part women’s chorus, all worked into a seamless whole, like a golden Indian brocade.

It’s easy on the ear, and very beguiling. I’m just not sure it’s opera. Based on the Bhagavad-Gita, the piece depicts the hero Arjuna about to join battle against an army that includes family and friends; he turns to Krishna for guidance, and learns the secrets of the universe. This is thought-provoking, but not necessarily the stuff of theatrical drama; and while I enjoyed listening to it, particularly as the voices and styles wove together in the work’s culmination, I wanted more emotional depth beyond the prettiness.

[via SAJA]