Ushering in a melodious 2010 “When Amjad Ali Khan performs, he carries with him a deep human spirit, a warm feeling and a sense of caring” — His Holiness the Dalai Lama Ustad Amjad Ali Khan is one of the foremost sarod players in India and has carved a niche for himself in the horizon of Indian classical music. He has achieved immense popularity both in India and abroad and has equally regaled connoisseurs and lay listeners of classical music. He imparts a rare aesthetic experience to his audiences with his creative imagination, consummate artistry and an imposing stage presence. Amjad Ali Khan was born to the illustrious Bangash lineage rooted in the Senia Bangash School of music. Today, he shoulders the sixth generation inheritance of this legendary lineage. His father, Ustad Hafiz Ali Khan, had received training from the great Wazir Khan of Rampur. Ustad Hafiz Ali Khan, who was among the first few to receive the Padma Bhushan, gave intensive training to his sons, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan and his two brothers. The creative genius of Ustad Amjad Ali Khan found expression in several enchanting melodies composed by him. He has composed ragas Priyadarshini and Kamalashree in memory of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. The names of other melodies composed by him are Shivanjali, Haripriya Kanada, Kiran Ranjani, Suhag Bhairav, Lalit Dhwani, Shyam Shri and Jawahar Manjari. This melodious evening will see the maestro performing solo, with Tanmoy Bose and Vineet Vyas accompanying him on the tabla. Event: Solo sarod recital by Ustad Amjad Ali Khan When: Today at 5 pm Where: Science City Auditorium

ART

Till January 9 (except Sundays and public holidays) at CIMA Gallery; 3 pm - 7 pm (Mondays) & 2 pm - 7 pm (Tuesdays to Saturdays): In Search of a Context, an exhibition about the relation of art to its setting of time, place, social and historical moorings. Artworks include paintings, sculptures, drawings, collage, films and video. Featuring works of Manas Acharya, Samir Aich, Rashmi Bagchi Sarkar, Sumitro Basak, Rameshwar Broota, Shreyasi Chatterjee, Swarna Chitrakar, Jogen Chowdhury, Sougata Das, Partha Pratim Deb, Meera Devidayal, Early Bengal School, Anita Gopal, Subodh Gupta, Anup Mondal, Binode Behari Mukherjee, Ravinder G. Reddy, Satyajit Roy, Kingshuk Sarkar, Shakila, Shuvaprasanna, Mayank Kumar Shyam, Arpita Singh, J. Swaminathan, Rabindranath Tagore, Manish Waghdare, Ancient South Indian Sculpture, and Cinematic Installation by Rituparno Ghosh and Mainak Bhaumik. January 1 - 5 at Chemould, 12F Park Street; 2 pm - 8 pm: The third solo exhibition of paintings by Tanima Bhattacharya. January 1 - 10 (except Sunday) at Eye on Art, 3 Pretoria Street; 1 pm - 7 pm: Paintings by Apurba Choudhury, Augustine Mullick, Shuvankar Maitra, Sukhendu Paul and Tapan Mitra. January 1 - 10 at Art Walk, South City Mall; 12 noon - 8 pm: Paintings by Swapan Kumar Saha and Somnath Adhikary. Till January 2 at Idiyas Gallery, 15 Dover Road, #65508418; 10.30 am - 6.30 pm: Portals of Perception — an exhibition of paintings by Ramananda Bandyopadhyay, Chandrima Ray, Aditya Basak, Sanatan Dinda, Sukanta Das, Subrata Gangopadhyay, Subrata Das, Suhas Roy, Samir Paul, Gourango Beshai, Sibsaday Chaudhuri and others. Till January 3 at Birla Academy of Art & Culture; 4 pm - 8 pm: Recent works by Sobhan Dutta. Till January 3 at Academy of Fine Arts; 12 noon - 8 pm: 74th Annual All-India Fine Arts Exhibition. Till January 3 at Bose Pacia, Stephens Court, 18 Park Street; 11 am - 7 pm: B-Swarga — new works by Jayanta Roy. Till January 3 at Government College of Arts and Crafts, 28 Jawaharlal Nehru Road: Government College of Arts and Crafts is holding its 145th annual exhibition. Till January 11 (except Tuesday) at The Halo Heritage Art Gallery, 26 Ritchie Road; 3 pm - 8 pm: Colours — an exhibition of paintings by B.R. Panesar, Anita Roychowdhury, Prabir Sen, Krishnendu Chaki, Manas Roy, Dripta Roy, Shomi Banerjee, Malay Das, Subhendu Sarkar and Shubhabrata Nandi. Till January 16 (except Sunday) at 2/1 Hindusthan Road; 11 am - 7 pm: Experimenter presents Freedom is Notional — works of three of South Asia’s leading artists Shilpa Gupta, Bani Abidi and Naeem Mohaiemen. Till January 17 at Bodhi Tree Monastery of Art, 48/44 Swiss Park, #2424 6534; 2 pm - 7 pm: A solo show of Arnab Basu’s works. Till January 31 (except Mondays) at Victorial Memorial Hall; 10 am - 5 pm: Indian Life and Landscape by Western Artists: Paintings and Drawings from the V&A, 1790-1927, hosted by The Victoria Memorial Hall and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

DRAMA

Till January 3 at Tapan Theatre; 6.30 pm: Drishyapat hosts Natya Bhavna 09. Today: Drishyapat presents Aguner Barnamala, directed by Anirban Bhattacharya. January 1 at Academy of Fine Arts: Charbak will stage Chalo Patol Tuli (at 3 pm) and Apsara Theater-er Mamla (at 6.30 pm). January 1 at Minerva Theatre; 6.30 pm: PLT presents Utpal Dutt’s Titumeer. January 1 at Gyan Manch; 7 pm: Theatrecian and Take 5 Communications present That’s Absurd! — a number of short plays written by Harold Pinter and Edward Albee. Plays being performed: One for the Road (a Pinter play directed by Dhruv), Monologue (a Pinter play performed by Riddhi Barman), The Zoo Story (this Albee play completes 50 shows in Calcutta), Victoria Station (a Pinter play performed by Dhruv and Deborshi), Trouble in the Works (a Pinter play) and Precisely (another Pinter play). Cast: Tathagata Chowdhury, Deborshi Barat, Dhruv Mookerji, Shayak Barman, Riddhi Barman and Rukmini.

PERFORMING ARTS

January 1 at Science City Auditorium; 5 pm: Harmonika Sangeet Samman: Solo sarod recital by Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, with tabla accompaniment by Tanmoy Bose and Vineet Vyas. January 1 at Sri Aurbindo Institute of Culture, 3 Regent Park; 10.30 am: Ashis Bhattacharjee will render songs of Tagore. January 1 at Girish Mancha; 5.30 pm: The fourth annual performance (Bharata Natyam, modern dance and Tagore’s Tasher Desh) by the students and members of Shristi - Institute of Performing Arts & Ballet Unit. January 1 - 4 at Madhusudan Mancha: Ballygunge Maitreyee Music Circle, in association with West Bengal State Music Academy, hosts the 12th Annual Sangeetacharya Radhika Mohan Maitreya Memorial Music Conference. Today at 5.30 pm: Anu Barman (dhrupad); Deb Sankar and Jyoti Sankar (violin); and Keka Mukherjee (sitar). January 2 at Triguna Sen Memorial Auditorium, Jadavpur University; 5 pm: Mansur Sansmaran Manch, Pune and School of Cultural Texts and Records, Jadavpur University present an evening of classical music to celebrate the 99th birth anniversary of Pandit Mallikarjun Mansur. January 2 at Kala Mandir; 6.30 pm: To raise funds for the proposed Thalassaemia Foundation and Blood Bank, Institute of Child Health presents a classical evening featuring Ayaan Ali Khan (sarod) and Anindo Chatterjee (tabla). January 2 at Weavers Studio Centre for the Arts, 94 Ballygunge Place; 6.30 pm: An evening of ghazals with Trisha Biswas, disciple of Sanjukta Ghosh. January 3 at G.D. Birla Sabhagar; 6 pm: Synthesis — a santoor-piano jugalbandi by Tarun Bhattacharya and Shrimati Rajlakshmi.

TALK

January 1 at Ramakrishna Vedanta Math, 19B Raja Raj Krishna Street; 7 pm: Samir Kumar Basu will speak in Bengali on Swami Abhedanander Jiban Darshan.

PHOTO EXHIBITION

Till January 2 at Rabindranath Tagore Centre, ICCR; 11 am - 7 pm: Bonjour India presents TV Viewers, an exhibition of photographs taken by French lensman Olivier Culmann that captures the unsettling passivity of TV viewers. Till January 13 (except Sunday) at Weavers Studio Centre for the Arts, 94 Ballygunge Place, #2461 3145; 10 am - 7 pm: Return to Eden — an exhibition of photography by Prabir Purkayastha. Curated by Ina Puri.

ALBUM RELEASE

January 1 at City Centre Pavilion; 6 pm: Asha Audio will release Mon Diye Shono, the maiden venture of Ebong Aamra, an ensemble of a number of well-known session musicians. Lead singers: Raghav Chatterjee and Krishna Das Baul. Also, a curtain raiser performance of the band.

EXHIBITION

January 1 - 7 at 108 Raja Basanta Roy Road; 11 am - 7.30 pm: Printed silk, tussar and South Indian sarees at Paramita Viswanthan’s Design. January 1 - 7 at Design, 108 Raja Basanta Roy Road; 11.30 am - 8 pm: Soumya’s Creation presents an exhibition of its new range of evening bags and costume jewellery. Till January 2 at Jain House, 8/1 Esplanade East; 11.30 am - 7 pm: Sujata Sarawgi’s handwoven, printed, surface embroidered sarees — matka, ghicha and tussars. Introducing dupattas from the looms of Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar. Till January 2 at Finesse, 11/1B New Road, Alipore; 11 am - 7 pm: Tussar Utsav — woven and printed sarees in tussar and matka silk. Till January 2 at 3/90 Chittaranjan Colony, Jadavpur, #2713 1031; 11 am - 7 pm: The Indian Handicraft presents brass showpieces, silk/canvas paintings, diyas, gifts items, greetings cards and wooden furniture. Till January 3 at Milan Mela complex; 2 pm - 8 pm; business visitors (10 am - 1 pm): 23rd Industrial India Trade Fair 2009 organised by BNCCI and Government of West Bengal in association with Indian Trade Promotion Organi- sation. Till January 11 at Halo Heritage, 26 Ritchie Road; 11.30 am - 8 pm: Soumya’s Creation presents an exhibition of its new range of durries and home accessories.All those who wish events to be included in this column should write not less than a week ahead to: Time out, The Telegraph, 6 Prafulla Sarkar Street, Calcutta-700 001; Fax: 2234-8244

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All those who wish events to be included in this column should write not less than a week ahead to:

Time out, The Telegraph, 6, Prafulla Sarkar Street, Calcutta-700 001;
Fax: 2234-8244