From occasional comments I receive from virtual friends over at BollyWHAT?, and also from my visitor logs here at Geek of All Trades, I am starting to notice that the GOAT Indian film lists are getting some attention.
I want them to be as interesting and helpful as they can be to people who are curious about Bollywood and other Indian cinema. For that reason, I am thinking of reorganizing them. (I also hope to revisit some of the entries I wrote early in my exploration of Indian films, because as I've learned more, my views of some of those films has evolved.)
I would appreciate suggestions from whatever readers I have out there who have opinions, including those of you who have just stumbled upon the lists by accident. What would be most useful and interesting organization for the lists? Here are some possibilities:
- I could reorganize the lists to arrange the films alphabetically (by transliterated titles). Then I would divide the list into segments of 10-15 films, similar to the segments that exist now, but arranged by letter - A-E, F-J, etc. If I did this I would have to include some kind of notification on the main page whenever something got added. An advantage of this scheme be that films would get added more quickly - instead of waiting until I've seen another 10 films to upadate, the lists could be updated within a few days of when I watched a film. And if you have a particular film in mind and want to know whether I've seen it and what I thought of it, you could find it quickly and easily.
- Another possibility would be to keep the lists as they are now, but create an index post that would list the films alphabetically, with links to the segment of the list they appear in. This would have the advantage of preserving the rough order in which I watched the films, which is of some interest to me but may be somewhat less interesting to you. It would also faciliate quick location of particular films. Finally, it has the undeniable advantage of being the least work for me, and so it is the speediest solution to re-organizing the lists. It would, however, continue to be several months between updates, which is not that much fun.
- A third possibility might be to assign each film its own post. This would be a lot of work for me, not least because if I did it I would feel compelled to add more information to each post instead of just the short blurb I have now for each film. This option would also include an index with links to each individual film's post.
- A variation of that third option: my Typepad account allows me more than one blog, so I might be tempted to create a separate blog just for the movie posts. An advantage of this would be that I could creat categories that would help sort the films for the interested user - masala, oldies, art films, Shabana, top recommendations, etc.
I think the last option is the most delicious, but I am terrified of how much work it would be, and fear that practically speaking it might never get done. Still, I could get it started, and keep the original GOAT lists as they are until the migration is complete.
So, please weigh in, GOAT readers and Hindi film-heads. Tell me what you'd like to see in the film lists - add suggestions of your own to my ideas. Please check out Parts I, II, III, and IV if you aren't already familiar with the lists.
In the meantime, I am working on Part V of the GOAT Indian film list - I've seen nine or ten films since Part IV went up, and I'm happy to say it's been a particularly excellent batch of movies. After I get Part V up, I'll announce what's going to happen with the lists. I look forward to your feedback!