Introduction to the Poll
The 50 essential South Asian films list was used for the bfi's critical poll and is divided into a number of different sections. To the original list has been added suggestions made by those critics so the list now totals over 450 films including the polls.
This list of films is supposed to be a representative sample of the kinds of films that are produced and consumed in South Asia and elsewhere. It formed part of bfi's South Asian Cinema 2002 programme designed to present to the British public for the first time the immense diversity of South Asian cinema. However this list ranges wider than the immediate context of the events and screenings for South Asian Cinema. It complements the publication of a number of books on South Asian cinema by the bfi. Moreover, by inviting anyone accessing the list during South Asian Cinema to take part in the poll we made our effort an interactive one. The aim was to begin a process of dialogue about South Asian cinema and sustain that interest into the future
Taken together, the South Asian cinemas are probably the largest regional concentration of film-makers in the world, and also the most diverse. Indeed, the clubbing together of so many kinds of cinemas is problematic and one might question the very rationale of a category like 'South Asia', or for that matter any category utilised in compiling the list. Are we choosing to remain oblivious of the histories of film-making by employing arbitrary political categories? One cannot avoid these questions but to raise these questions is to miss the point of the poll. This list is part of an on-going effort to understand the histories of world cinemas, not in isolation but in dialogue with each other. And this is just the beginning, and a modest one at that. This will become clear as we clarify some of the criteria used to compile the list.
We are aware of the absurdity of any classification of South Asian cinema along any simple logic of international region, nation, regions or sub-regions. The linguistic diversity gives rise a huge range of cinemas. The problem becomes even more acute when a list of 450 films purports to represent a hundred years of cinematic history comprising thousands of films. Given these constraints we chose to fall back on the most basic criteria of classification possible - that of numbers. Our team distributed the numbers of films to be considered for each category in proportion to the total number of films in that category that could be accessed from databases available for research in Britain. Our modest budget did not allow for a world-wide research programme on all kinds of South Asian cinemas, many of which remain completely undocumented. Once the numbers had been fixed (and this was an on-going process throughout the compilation) we next tackled the task of selecting the films themselves.
At first glance the list might look a trifle idiosyncratic to anyone looking at it. Where are the Jalsaghar's or the much loved Sultan Rahi films, or even the cult sex-education film Gupt Gyan? Critical success, popularity, generic representability or star phenomena were all valid criteria used to compile this list. Therefore, the absence of certain films or certain kinds of films will be baffling. Yet a final number for each category was always the biggest deciding factor in giving final shape to the list. However, an effort has been made to make the list as representative as possible given the multiple criteria used for compilation. For example, we had to consider a film's influence on subsequent cinema and the point in a major career (director or star) in which the film is located. At any rate, the relatively few Hindi films was woefully inadequate to do justice to even the 'classics' let alone allow for generic diversity, or for that matter the emergence of 'parallel' cinemas in South Asian regions from the 1970s onwards which made our task even more difficult.
The problem of numbers vs. diversity of criteria became clearer when we looked at phenomena like Biswajeet or the Rajnikant of the 1970s that go completely unrepresented in this list. Here we had to employ a vague notion of 'popularity' and chose those films that were mega-hits and would therefore manage to represent some of the dominant trends of cinema of the respective eras. Within this logic it proved necessary, for example, to subsume Joy Mukherjee films to the larger cult of Shammi Kapoor. The fact that some of these films are remembered mainly due to their songs means that if we were to compile a list of Hindi films based just on the quality of songs then a large majority of the films on our list would not be there.
The other problem was the lack of adequate databases for certain kinds of films. In the case of Sri Lankan cinema, we have very little knowledge in existing databases about much of the popular cinema from the 1970s onwards, and the same could be said of Bangladesh. In the case of Pakistani films, the knowledge about Punjabi and Pashto films is similarly extremely limited. Again, budgetary constraints and the pressure of numbers meant that we could not access literature in regional languages to do full justice to the range of films under consideration.
Despite these caveats we have tried to make the list as interesting as possible. We have tried to by-pass the problem of academic or critical judgement by asking the experts to vote for the 'top' films instead of the 'best' or the 'greatest'. Here we asked our contributors to take some time over the choices they made and consider the quality and the historical importance, as well as the personal appeal for them of particular films. The list then is supposed to be seen as an agent provocateur for further discussion and research on South Asian cinemas. Above all, it aims to convey an idea of the diversity of films produced in these regions, to stimulate the interest of audiences as well as encourage further dialogue on the histories and cultures of these cinemas. Indeed, this list seeks only to hint at the many ways in which South Asian cinemas can be looked at. It by no means represents a definitive account of South Asian cinema and no such list can ever claim to do so. We have tried to make the list flexible by keeping the option of alternative listings or selections open. We would not be surprised if many lists had very little in common with ours. We ourselves hope to learn a lot from this interactive process and intend to use this knowledge in helping us formulate subsequent projects that can do justice to the enormous diversity of cinemas that excite us all as film-lovers.
Finally we are aware of the large number of discrepant and alternative pellings for film titles and names and of the large room for error in compiling lists or information on this scale.
We decided to include as much information for the top 10 films as was readily accessible to us. We made considerable effort to avoid errors along the way but welcome notification of ommissions, mistakes or corrections whichwe missed. Please send any messages concerning the information relating to the Poll to website feedback.
