Understanding life through theatre Besides essential theatre practice, Nandikar has always been involved with a number of other socio-cultural ventures. Perhaps the most significant among these is its annual National Theatre Festival, which Nandikar has been hosting since 1984. Over the years, it has grown to be a prestigious cultural event of national importance, with participation from leading theatre troupes from across the nation, and occasionally from abroad. Luminaries including Sombhu Mitra, Ebrahim Alkazi, Habib Tanvir, Vijay Tendulkar, Girish Karnad, Utpal Dutt, Badal Sircar, Khaled Chowdhury, Amol Palekar, Birju Maharaj, Sanyukta Panigrahi, Pt Ajoy Chakrabarti and Ustad Amjad Ali Khan have been directly involved with Nandikar in this cultural odyssey. To be inaugurated this evening at 6, Nandikar’s 10-day 26th National Theatre Festival is being dedicated to the memory of Habib Tanvir. This year’s festival will feature plays by troupes from Assam, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur and Bengal. International participation comes in the form of groups from Bangladesh and Pakistan. Apart from the performance of plays everyday, there will be plays for children and young people, and exhibitions and seminars on Rabindranath Tagore and Habib Tanvir. After the inaugural ceremony, Dhaka Theatre of Bangladesh will stage the Bengali play, Dhaboman (dir: Shimul Yousuff; a scene from it appears here), which narrates the story of a bull, who allows his own life to be sacrificed to save the life of his master’s son. Event: Nandikar’s 26th National Theatre Festival When: December 16 - 25 Where: Academy of Fine Arts

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. Till December 19 at Gallery K2, Supra Court, 35 Lansdowne Terrace, #2465 1444; 11 am - 7 pm: My World in Colours (Part 2) — an exhibition of recent works by Atri Sen. Till December 20 at Taj Bengal, Promenade Lounge; 10 am - 11 pm: Recent works by Kuntal Dutta. The artist will be painting live from 3 pm to 6 pm. Till December 20 at Sanskriti Art Gallery, 5C Alipore Park Road: An exhibition of sculptures by Debabrata De. Till December 22 at Chitrakoot Art Gallery, 55 Gariahat Road, #2475 2275; 3 pm - 8 pm: An exhibition of paintings on Kali. Till December 26 (except Sunday) at Galerie 88, 28B Shakespeare Sarani, #22902274; 11 am - 7 pm, Mon - 2 pm to 7 pm: Modern Continuous — Works by Bikash Bhattacharjee, Dharmanarayan Dasgupta, Dipak Banerjee, Ganesh Pyne, Jogen Chowdhury, Lalu Prasad Shaw, Mee- ra Mukherjee, Paritosh Sen and Somnath Hore. Till December 26 (except Sunday) at Ganges Art Gallery, 33A Jatin Das Road, #2465 3212; 11 am - 7 pm: A Study in Abstraction — an exhibition featuring works of Manjari Chakravarti, Shridhar Iyer, Prabhakar Kolte, Manish Pushkale, Deepak Rajvar, Partha Shaw, S. Harsha Vardhana, Deepak Tandon and Neha Chandria. Till December 27 (except Monday and December 25) at Birla Academy of Art and Culture; 3 pm - 8 pm: An exhibition to mark the golden jubilee of Society of Contemporary Artists. Till December 28 at Starmark, South City Mall; 11 am - 8 pm: Paintings by Nina Das.

PERFORMING ARTS

December 15 at Bharatiyam Cultural Multiplex, IB 201 Salt Lake; 3 pm: EZCC hosts a talent search programme featuring young, talented Rabindrasangeet artistes Jayasree Roy (Chowdhury), Binata Bandyopadhyay, Vaishakhi Ghosal, Atrayee Saha, Namita Das, Anuradha Chattopadhyay, Chandra Mahalanabish, Sarmistha Sengupta, Supti Chattopadhyay and Suvra Ghosh December 17 at Ramakrishna Mission Insti- tute of Culture, Vivekananda Hall; 6 pm: Vocal recital by Nagraj Rao Havaldar with Kedarnath Havaldar (tabla) and Hiranmoy Mitra (harmonium).

DRAMA

Till December 20 at Madhusudan Mancha; 6.30 pm: Kolkata Comedy Carnival hosts a festival of comedy plays. Today: Sayak’s Jnan Briksher Fall. Direction: Meghnad Bhattacharya. December 16 at Tapan Theatre; 6.30 pm: Rashbehari Srishti presents two short plays, Simul O Balai and Akashi Akangsha. Written and directed by Amit Sarkar.

FESTIVAL

December 16 (4 pm) & December 17 (5 pm) at Rabindra Sadan complex: Poush Utsav, organised by Rabindra Sadan and I&CA department, Government of West Bengal. Featuring Tagore songs, dances, recitations along with various forms of folk songs of Bengal amidst a handicrafts fair and Poush-parbon delicacies. Today: Tagore songs by Purabi Mukherjee, Purba Dam, Swapna Ghoshal, Enakshi Chatterjee, Swastika Mukherjee, Shikha Bose, Srinanda Mukherjee, Shraboni Sen, Debarati Som, Jayasri Dasgupta, Bhaswati Mukherjee, Manini Mukherjee, Bhaswati Ghosh, Shinjini Acharya Majumdar, Chandrabali Rudra Dutta, Rajeswar Bhattacharya, Ashis Bhattacharya, Swapan Gupta, Goutam Mitra, Bibhas Ghosh, Srikumar Chatterjee, Alak Roychoudhury, Abuir Chatterjee and Rahul Mitra; folk songs by Utpalendu Chowdhury, Dhiraj Khyapa, Somen Biswas and Dolon Banerjee; recitation by Bejoylakshmi Barman, Ratna Mitra, Sumantra Sengupta, Amitava Bagchi, Antara Das and Ashis Ghosh; and dance by Amita Dutt, Anita Mallick, Asimbandhu Bhattacharya, Dr Mahua Mukherjee, Kalabati Devi, Dancers’ Guild, Kuthambalam Cultural Association, Mamata Shankar Dance Company, Nritya Upasana, and Indian Cultural Troupe.

FESTIVAL OF FRANCE

Till December 16: Littératures: A French Festival of Letters. Today at Oxford Bookstore, Park Street, 7 pm: Home and the World, Olivier Germain-Thomas in conversation with Nabaneeta Dev Sen and Sabyasachi Chakrabarty.

BOOK READING

December 16 at Weavers Studio Centre for the Arts, 94 Ballygunge Place; 6.30 pm: A book-reading session with Annu Jalais, author of Forest of Tigers: People, Politics & Environment in the Sunderbans.

FILM SHOW

December 15 - 17 at Nandan-II; 4 pm & 6.30 pm: Films Division, Government of India and Nandan, West Bengal Film Centre jointly present a festival of award-winning films from the Mumbai International Film Festival for Documentary, Short and Animation. Today, at 4 pm: Images of Dictatorship (Canada; dir: Patricia Henriquez), and Tell Them The Tree They Have Planted Has Now Grown (India; dir: Ajay Raina). At 6.30 pm: Way back Home (Aabar Aashibo Phire) (India; dir: Supriyo Sen). December 16 at Max Mueller Bhavan; 6.30 pm: Docu-Forum Tanvir Ka Safarnama (Tanvir’s Travelogue). The director of the film, Ranjan Kamath, will introduce the film and interact with viewers after the screening.

TALK

December 16 at Sarojini Naidu College for Women, 30 Jessore Road; 11.30 am: A seminar on Contemporary Crisis and Young Generation: Malady and Remedy. December 16 at Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Vivekananda Hall; 6 pm: Swami Vedaswarupananda will speak on Gita. December 16 at Bidhannagar Ramakrishna Vivekananda Kendra, DD-44 Salt Lake; 6 pm: Dipak Ganguly will speak on Swamijir Patrabali. December 16 at Ramakrishna Vedanta Math, 19B Raja Raj Krishna Street; 7 pm: Swami Buddhatmananda will speak on Bani O Bichar.

PHOTO EXHIBITION

Till December 20 at Birla Industrial and Technological Museum, 19A Gurusaday Road; 10 am - 5 pm: British Council and Birla Industrial and Technological Museum present Hard Rain, a project by eminent British photographer, author and environmental campaigner Mark Edwards. December 16 - 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.

SPORTS MEET

December 16 at Yuva Bharati Krirangan; 9 am - 2 pm: Seventh Annual Sports Meet of Delhi Public School Ruby Park, Calcutta. Students from classes nursery to XI will participate in various colourful events.

EXHIBITION

December 16 - 24 at 218 AJC Bose Road; 11 am - 7 pm: Bombaim showcases an eclectic collection of dresses, clutch bags, jewellery and home accessories. Till December 18 at Rabindranath Tagore Centre, ICCR, 9A Ho Chi Minh Sarani; 10 am - 7 pm: Kamala (outlet of Crafts Council of India) presents crafts and textiles that have been sourced directly from Santiniketan artisans. Till December 31 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