Satyaji Ray’s universally acclaimed film Pather Panchali made in 1955 was adjudged the top Indian film while Masala directed by NRI Srinivas Krishna, has topped the British film institute’s web poll for South Asian cinema.Ramesh Sippy’s Sholay comes second after Pather Panchali while oscar-nominated Lagaan comes fourth after Dilwale Dulaniya Le Jayenge (DDLJ), an all time box office hit produced by Aditya Chopra.The poll, hosted on the BFI’s own website was released today. Masala focuses on an Indian community in Canada and explores the experiences of an extended family, from an aunt who converses with Lord Krishna through her television, to an uncle who offers refuge to suspected terrorists in his sari shop.Commenting on Masala, director of imagine Asia, Cary Sawhney said: ‘‘It is great that Masala, one of the seminal Asian films from a western perspective, has topped the poll for diaspora films. In 1991 this film was ground breaking in combining everyday realities of urban youth in Canada with Bollywood-inspired escapist dream sequences.’’Following on from the critics’ poll of south Asian film announced in October, the public was invited to vote for its own favourite south Asian film titles: both polls were divided into five sections, producing top tens for Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan and Bangladeshi cinema, with a separate category for films with contemporary Asian themes or made by western Asians.In the web poll, Masala topped this last category and secured the most votes overall.The polls aim to generate discussion and provide a starting point for further research on these film histories and cultures and were initiated as part of the BFI’s eight-month Imagine Asia festival which drew to a close last week.The top ten Indian films were: Pather Panchali (1955) (Satyajit Ray), Sholay (1975) (Ramesh Sipply), DDLJ (1995) (Aditya Chopra), Lagaan (2001) (Ashutosh Gowarikar), Mother India (1957) (Mehboob Khan), Pakeezah (1971) (Kamal Amrohi), Charulata (1964) (Satyajit Ray), Pyaasa (1957) (Guru Dutt), Dil Se (1998) (Mani Ratnam), Mughal-e-Azam (1960) (K. Asif). (PTI)
