WHAT DOES THE STEAMPUNK GENRE INMOVIES MEAN?

Steampunk movies are set in alternative reality, wherehumankind didn’t invent electricity. Most moviesare set in the 19th century, the British Victo-rian Era style or Wild West in the United

States. As such, steam-powered machines rule theworld.

Listed below are the best Steampunkmovies of all times – the ones you shouldwatch as soon as possible.

Wild Wild WestThis science-fiction/comedy, released in 1999,is considered to be a parody and is one of thebest movies to watch if you are interested in al-ternative history and steam-powered machines.The protagonists are Will Smith and Salma Hayek.

Sky Captain and the World of TomorrowThis film was released in 2011 and is set in 1939, in an al-ternative reality where scientists have been taken to workfor Dr Totenkopf. He wants to create a futuristic world.Developed by Kerry Conran, the movie is actually a partof diesel-punk genre, and is one of a kind.

SHARANYA PATNAIK, CLASS IX, MOTHER’S INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL, DELHI

ENTERTAINMENT 03

AskMeAnything

■ PREDATOR LAND, NAT GEO WILD,3.00 PM: Experts provide an insightinto the lives of predatory animalsin Africa, focusing on their be-haviour, physical facets, survivaltactics and hunting strategies.

■ EARTH FILES, DISCOVERY SCIENCE,5.00 PM: The host follows a team ofexperts as they seek to unravelsome of the biggest mysteries onEarth.■ BEST CAKE WINS, FYI TV18, 7.00PM: Top bakers from across theUnited States create birthday cakesand compete against each other toimpress the judges and win thebake-off.■ THE DAREDEVILS, ANIMAL PLANET,8.00 PM: The host travels across theglobe to find deadliest creatures byinvading their environment andtrying to learn about their behav-iour.

■ JOHN CARTER, MNX, 3.20 PM: Civ-il War veteran John’s resistance tojoin the army leads him to trouble.He eventually finds himself in asituation where he has superhu-man capabilities. Soon, he discov-ers that he is on Mars.■ IRON MAN 2, STAR MOVIES, 6.18 PM:Tony Stark is under pressure fromvarious sources, including the gov-ernment, to share his technologywith the world. He must find a wayto fight them while also tacklinghis other enemies.

■ GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE, MOVIESNOW HD, 7.05 PM: Baby George isthe lone survivor of a plane crashand is raise by a wise gorilla in thejungle. One day, he saves Ursulaand moves from his sweet junglelife in Africa to San Francisco.

MOVIES ON TVTELEVISION

MUST DOMUST SEEDECEMBER06, 2019 1768: First edition of “Encyclopedia

Britannica” published in Scotland.

1774: Austria became first nation to introduce a

state education system.

1849: Harriet Tubman escaped from slavery in

Maryland for the 2nd and final time.

1877: Thomas Edison demonstrated the first gramo-

phone, with a recording of himself reciting Mary Had

a Little Lamb.

1956: Bhimrao Ambedkar, India’s first law minister,

passed away.

1957: America's first attempt at putting a satellite

into orbit failed when the satellite blew up on the

launch pad at Cape Canaveral, FL.

1992: Babri mosque at Ayodhya was demolished.

The following two months of Hindu-Muslim rioting

resulted in death of 2,000 people.

1998: Astronauts aboard the space shuttle

Endeavour connected the first two building blocks of

the international space station in the shuttle cargo

bay.

2018: Luxembourg became first nation to make all

public transport free.

THIS DAYTHAT YEAR

IN FOCUS: AAMIR KHAN

I have to keepHONING MY SKILLS

Q How have these years in the industry gone by?Are you in your happy space? I am happy no mat-ter what. But it really feels like yesterday. It just

doesn’t feel like three decades have passed. Time has thatquality where it passes like a flash.

Q WWhheenn yyoouurr ffiillmm iiss rreelleeaassiinngg,, tthhee aauuddiieennccee hhaassiimmmmeennssee ttrruusstt iinn iitt.. WWaass iitt aa ssttrraatteeggyy ttoo ggeett ssuucchh aarreeppuuttaattiioonn?? I wouldn’t exactly call it a well-

thought- out strategy. But I have worked hard to buildthat reputation. What I have followed through my career

is that I have been very demanding with myself. The workthat I do has to stand up to my own standards. What’simportant for me is: am I happy with a role/film? I wantto do good work and be happy with it. What I keep doing

is a quality check on my work. I wantto do good work and I have beenstriving for it. Perhaps, that hasresulted in the trust between meand the audience.

Q HHooww wwoouulldd yyoouu ddeeffiinneeyyoouurrsseellff —— aa mmeetthhooddaaccttoorr oorr aa bboorrnn aaccttoorr??

Most times, I questionmyself as an actor... WhenI see actors likeNaseeruddin Shah, DilipKumar, Amitabh Bachchan— I feel I haven’t achieved

anything at all. They arethe real powerhouse of tal-

ent. When they give a shot,there is so much belief. It

comes out organically. I feel Idon’t have that gift. I have towork myself up to that level. Ienjoy acting and that’s all I do.

EXCERPTS FROM AN INTERVIEW

When I came into the industry, I was a lone ranger,trying to do films that I believed in, says actor Aamir Khan. There are days when the actor questionshis skills... read on to find out why

Superhero movies dominatedthe box office in the lastdecade. Plenty of these filmsshaped and defined thegenre, and made their markon the larger world ofentertainment. From‘Avengers’ to ‘Joker’, TimesNIE selected some of themost significant and talked-about movies that wonthe audience’s hearts and setthe box office cash registersringing – all overthe world

The Avengers ar-rived in thesummer of 2012

to critical acclaim –and a then-record $207million US domesticopening weekend. Iteventually grossed $1.5billion worldwide.That seems like child’splay now consideringthat ‘Avengers: Endgame’ is the highest-gross-ing movie ever. But at the time, ‘TheAvengers’ was a Marvel-lous achievement.It laid the foundation forwhat would be domi-nant property inpop culture for therest of the decade,and probably the next

one, too.

Snyder’s take on Superman — seeminglyinspired by the success of the ‘DarkKnight’ movies (director Christopher

Nolan is credited as a producer on ‘Man ofSteel’) — left fans and critics divided. It earneda decent $668 million worldwide and receiveda 56% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes. Sny-der’s most affectionate fans still swear by it,and their emotions were only heightened byhis even more brooding follow-up, ‘Batman vSuperman: Dawn of Justice’ in 2016. Depend-ing on who you ask, with ‘Man Of Steel’, Su-perman’s legacy is set in stone. Abattle over franchises defined the later part of the decade and no

superhero better represented it than Spider-Man. Sony owns thefilm rights to the character, but after the disappointing ‘Amazing

Spider-Man’ movies, it struck a deal withDisney in 2015 for the character to appearin the MCU. Marvel Studios co-produced‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ with Sony,which retained distribution rights whileDisney got a percentage of box-office grossrevenue. The brief squabble showcasedhow important superheroes are to studiosin general, and Spider-Man in particularfor Sony. Holland will reprise his role fora third MCU movie in 2021. Beyond that,the character’s movie future is uncertain,but the box-office hit ‘Venom’ and the Os-car-winning ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’ certainly gave Sony more confi-dence in its own Spider-Man movies.

Ten years ago, if you had askedfans who they thought wouldbe leading the franchise into

this new decade, they probably wouldn’t havesaid Chris Hemsworth’s Thor. The future ofMark Ruffalo’s Hulk is up in the air. Chris Evans’Captain America has passed the mantle, andRobert Downey Jr’s Iron Man met his end in‘Avengers Endgame.’ Now, Thor is the most promi-nent superhero left standing – from the original‘Avengers’ movie thanks to a total overhaul in‘Thor: Ragnarok,’ which finally figured out thatHemsworth is pretty darn funny.

THE AVENGERS(2012)Director: JossWhedon

WONDER WOMAN (2017)Director: Patty Jenkins

Wonder Woman’ stands out as the sole pre- ‘JusticeLeague,’ DC Extended Universe movie that garneredboth financial success and critical acclaim. And it’s

considered the first female-led superhero movie to ever achieve thisfeat. The film earned $822 million worldwide and received a 93% Rot-

ten Tomatoes critic score. After ‘Justice League’ bombed, Warner Bros.shifted its strategy for its DC movies. Rather than focusing on a con-

nected universe, it would focus on standalone stories that weremore fun, like ‘Aqua- man’, rather than ‘Batman v Superman’. ‘Won-

der Woman’ not only paved the way for other DC Extended singleheroes to shine, but for studios to take chances on women-

led superhero movies. Marvel Studios’ ‘CaptainMarvel’, two years later, would accentuate

the trend. Up next from the DC filmuniverse: ‘Birds of Prey (and the

Fantabulous Emancipa-tion of One HarleyQuinn)’, whichlooks to be a

wacky en-semble movie

led by Margot Rob-bie’s Quinn.

THOR:RAGNAROK

(2017)Director: Taika Waititi

MAN OF STEEL (2013)Director: Zack Snyder

MOVIESSUPERHERO

‘Joker’, an ultra-violent take onBatman’s greatestfoe, recentlybecame the firstR-rated movie toreach $1 billion atthe box office.

Superhero movies dominatedthe 2010s. Will supervillain

movies dominate the2020s? Probably not,but ‘Joker’s’ influ-ence will still be felt,especially, if it goesbeyond box-officegold and snags someOscar gold inFebruary.

JOKER (2019)Director: Todd Phillips

O nce upon a time in 1976,Melvin Lindsey, a student atHoward University,

Washington DC, was filling in at thelocal radio station for an employee

who failed to show up. It was alate night show, so

Lindsey played soulmusic such as ‘A

Quiet Storm’ bySmokey Robinson.The response to the

show was positive andLindsey got his own show.

Soon the term ‘quiet storm’ was usedto define a sound that was rooted in soul,

R&B and smooth jazz, and performed most-ly by African American groups. In 2019,this genre made a comeback with hip-hopinfused tracks, and is performed by Mary JBlige, Jill Scott, Lauryn Hill, John Legend

and Alicia Keys (left).

QUIET STORM

VAPORWAVE

R emember your computer-game menu with 8-bit tunes?Now add some groovy beats to it, throw in a little 1980spop and you get Vaporwave! Blank Banshee, a 25-year-

old from Vancouver, Canada, has found fame online by doingjust that in 2019. It is easily confused with Seapunk, whichmight as well be the same thing!

SOPHISTI-POPIt’s a sub-genre of pop, in UK, that exten-

sively uses electronic keyboards, elabo-rate arrangements and borrowed ele-

ments from soul music. Bands suchas Swing Out Sister were popular inthe 1980s. The genre has recentlyseen a revival, thanks to artistessuch as Jessie Ware (in pic).

NERD CORE

Nerds rapping about StarWars, galaxies, computergames etc make up this

new genre. When he’s not work-ing for Google, Monzy (in pic) isbusy rapping. He has 13 millionstudents as followers.

FUTURE GARAGE

D o you like jazz and electronic music? Alittle dubstep? But

you want it to be melodic, too,right? If yes, then future garage or

post-dubstep is where yourkind of sound is... JamesBlake and Flying Lotus havegot your preferences cov-ered. Discover this new soundon their albums in Youtube.

In the Internet era, music genres are constantlymingling. New sounds are discovered but soon

they fade away till they are rediscoveredagain by music junkies. So, do you listen

to Vaporwave? What about NerdCore? Read on...

MUSIC GENRES in theinternet age

It earned adecent $668million worldwideand received a 56% critic score on RottenTomatoes. With thisfilm Superman’slegacy is set instone

SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING (2017)

Director: Jon Watts

DECADE

OF THE

Movies! Movies! Movies! There is no end to entertainment. All youneed to do is cut through the lights, the camera and the action.So simply tune in...