How do we interpret culture?
At first glance at the film, ‘Sita Sings the Blues,’ I earnestly thought, ‘Wtf is this?’ Yes, I had watched the trailer first to see if I could decipher the contents of the movie but that did not help. At. All. So I decided to watch the actual movie. Surprisingly and unconsciously, this cartoon had illustrated the cultural values and differences of the Indian culture and what I believe to be culture myself.
In the opening sequence, you see the body of a voluptuous lady in a somewhat revealing and provocative attire. Later on, she is subordinate to a male God whom she massages. The screen then zooms in on her chest before flashes of all kinds of hearts appear. I find this very strange compared to my Christian faith. Women should be modest; however they should love and bow down to God which is both similar and different to what was displayed. I interpret the scene of the hearts suggesting that though we’re all different on the outside; we’re the same on the inside.
It wasn’t just the imagery. It was the music and voices and contrast of colours. The accent behind the words of the characters; the Westerners with an ordinary English accent and the foreigners voicing theirs. The music was merely beats and musical instruments with a very distinctive difference of what I normally hear and the singing was usually absent or beautiful foreign wails. The colours were vibrant and bright but the scenes reverting back to the westerners were plain and bare. I found it to be very interesting and thought provoking as I watched this film. It made me question how I interpret culture and how others may.
References:
Paley, N 2008, Sita Sings the Blues, SitaSingstheBlues.com (available: http://www.sitasingstheblues.com/watch.html) accessed August 22, 2012.
globalizemebaby 
Culture is culture, tradition is tradition, it’s passed down from one generation to another, but it depends on us if we follow it or not, even if we do, we all have our individual interpretations of it and we follow what we think is right. Like you said this film shows one the Indian culture, but there are western elements thrown into it. I am an Indian, but i have a European background, so along with Indian cultural values i have western values as well embedded. So therefore this makes us question ourselves as to whether the interpretation of our culture has been the same all along or our intellectual minds have given it a new meaning as the years progress and changes happen almost everyday.
August 27, 2012 at 9:18 am
I had the same reaction to the video when I first saw it and to be honest I’m not really sure I get it at all. However I do like your interpretation of it and your mention of its illustration of the differences between the culture/values of the video and your own. This was an interesting post about how culture can be interpreted.
August 28, 2012 at 1:49 am
Very interesting post and certainly eye-opening to some concepts we don’t always realise are happening, such as looking at identifying cultures from how they looks and then how they perceive our culture, its interesting that they have the colourful, bright and musically enchanting scenes contrasting the dull scenes which represent the westerners. Interesting to know that thats how we may be perceived as a westernish country. Good Work, keep it up
September 4, 2012 at 4:29 am
Do you think it is somewhat of a paradox in the way indians and westerners have interpreted their own religions? I mean hinduism was historically quite sexed up with voluptuous godesses and texts like the Karma Sutra etc whereas christian texts expounded sexual modesty..yet the two cultures today, christian influenced western culture and hindu india are the exact opposite to what their traditions teach- with the west becoming more sexualized and india a more conservative society where sexuality and sexualization are frowned upon. why do you think this is?
September 14, 2012 at 4:53 am