Strings and lyrics The Calcutta Chamber Orchestra was formed with the purpose of providing a sense of direction, belonging, employment and achievement to a group of boys who were brought up at the Oxford Mission. Over the years, other musicians have joined and been given constant training and exposure to conductors from all over the world. The varied repertoire of the Orchestra comprises Western classical music, Broadway melodies, Tagore songs and popular music, both Western and Indian. This evening, a string quartet of the Orchestra featuring Subroto Pramanick (leader and first violinist), Pronoti Prokash Mandal (second violin), Bhaskar Haldar (viola) and Somnath Makhal (cello) will perform (7 pm - 7.40 pm) as part of the third edition of Sound Comes to Life, a music programme hosted by Sonodyne, along with Starmark and LITTLEi. Open Stage (7.40 pm - 8 pm) offers an opportunity for aspiring music performers to showcase their talent. A live show by the Yatakas (picture along; 8 pm - 9 pm), a city-based music band, will bring the evening to a close. Inspired by nuances of Indian music, blended with elements of progressive rock, the group’s Hindi songs are essentially new age. They will sing a mix of original compositions, as well as popular Hindi and English numbers by other bands. Event: Chamber and band music When: Today; 7 pm - 9 pm Where: South City Mall atrium, 375 Prince Anwar Shah Road

art

Till May 17 at Gallery 79, 79 Raja Basanta Roy Road, 1st floor, #2466 2837; 4 pm - 7 pm: Mystic Colours, an exhibition of watercolours and collage by Shiladitya Ganguly and Probal Das. Till May 17 at Masters Collection Art Gallery, G7 Malayalay Apts, 3 Woodburn Park Road; 11 am - 7 pm: Stretch of Imagination: A show of exclusive artworks by 30 well-known artists. Till May 17 at C.C. Laha Centenary Fine Arts Gallery, 7 Chittaranjan Avenue, 1st floor, #6521 6931; 1 pm - 7 pm: Paintings by Badal Paul, Soibal Dutta, Tarun Banerjee, Subhrakanti Mitra, Shukla Chakrabarty, Indira Halder, Nabakumar Chakrabarty, Suprabhat Bhaduri and Panchanan Das. Till May 18 at Starmark, South City Mall; 11 am - 9 pm: Emami Chisel Art, in association with Starmark, presents Art on the Easel — an exhibition of paintings featuring the works of Arup Ratan Chowdhury. Till May 18 at Birla Academy of Art & Cukture, 2nd floor; 4 pm - 8 pm: A group show of paintings and sculptures hosted by Roddur. Till May 18 at Academy of Fine Arts, North Gallery; 12 noon - 8 pm: Rabi Art Gallery presents an exhibition of works by well-known artists. Till May 19 at Academy of Fine Arts; 3 pm - 8 pm: Miniatures II, an exhibition of affordable small works by Arjun Bhattacharjee, Arpita Pradhan, Biplab Sarkar, Chandranath Saha, Debabrata Sarkar, Nandita Mukherjee, Nitai Das, Nabendu Sengupta, Pradip Das, Sudipta Dutta and Utpal Dutta.

DRAMA

May 17 at Academy of Fine Arts; 3 pm: Cine Tel presents Soumitra Chattopadhyay’s Homa Pakhi. May 17 at Girish Mancha; 6.30 pm: Howrah Dakshinayan presents Hawa Badal. Script & direction: Kunal Mukhopadhyay. May 18 at Academy of Fine Arts; 3 pm: Theatre Passion presents its latest production, Anukul. Direction: Ramaprasad Banik. May 18 at Madhusudan Mancha; 6.30 pm: Shohan presents Helmet. Dir: Anish Ghosh. May 18 at Academy of Fine Arts; 6.45 pm: Gandhar presents Kachher Manush, directed by Gautam Haldar. May 18 at Padatik’s Buildwell Theatre; 7 pm: Theatrecian presents The Zoo Story, directed and performed by Tathagata Chowdhury.

TALK

May 17 at Ramakrishna Mission Saradapitha, Belur Math; 6 pm: Swami Girishananda will speak on Bhagwan Shankaracharya. May 17 at Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Shivananda Hall; 6 pm: Samiran Chandra Chakraborty will speak on Veda Parikrama. May 17 at Ramakrishna Vedanta Math, 19B Raja Rajkrishna Street; 7 pm: Swami Paramatmananda will speak in Bengali on Siksha, Samaj O Dharma. May 17 at Ramakrishna Math, Baranagar; 7.15 pm: Discourse on Sri Adhyatma Ramayana by Swami Satprabhananda.

PERFORMING ARTS

May 17 & 18 at Swabhumi; 5.30 pm: Kabi Pranam, origanised by Rabindra Sangeet Sammelan and Swabhumi. Featuring Tagore songs and recitation. Participants: Dr Sreekumar Chatterjee, Gorachand Mukherjee, Anushila Bose, Dr Tania Das, Sharmistha Dutta, Chandra Mahalanabis, Sumona Mukhopadhyay and others in songs; and Tapas Nag, Pardyot Moulik, Ishita Das Adhikary and others in recitation. May 17 at Rabindra Sadan campus; 5.30 pm: An evening of songs and recitation as part of Tagore’s birth anniversary celebration. Participants: Tithi Dev Buurman, Sritama Ghosh, Sonali Mondal, Sugata Sen, Shyamasree Dasgupta, Anindita Singha, Ananda Gupta, Priyam Mukhopadhyay, Satyakam Sen and others in songs, and Madhurima Basu, Suktisree Saha, Papia Chakraborty, Biswajit Mondal and others in recitation. May 17 at Rabindra Sadan auditorium; 5.30 pm: As part of Tagore’s birth anniversary celebrations, Swabak presents the play, Bisarjan, to be followed by the symbolic drama, Tasher Desh (Direction: Amartya Mukhopadhyay), produced by Saptak, Santiniketan. May 18: Chhande Nanan Rang (concept: Biplab Mondal; direction: Pramita Mallick), a programme of songs, presented by Rama Ramyabeena, to be followed by dance-drama Shyama (Direction: Gora Sarbadhikary and Debabrata Mukhopadhyay), presented by Elmherst Institute of Community Studies, Santiniketan. May 17 at International Club; 7 pm: Kabi Pranam, an evening of Tagore songs and readings by Swapan Gupta, Srikumar Chattopadhyay, Sraboni Sen, Debarati Shome, Satinath Mukhopadhyay, Koushik Sen, Unmana Dutta, Sudeshna Sanyal and Biswarup Rudra. May 17 at Science City auditorium; 8 pm onwards (night-long): Meghamallar presents Raat Bhor Rabindranath - Mahabishwey Mahakashey featuring Tagore songs and recitation and also dance. Also, felicitation to Suchitra Mitra, Dwijen Mukhopadhyay, Purabi Mukhopadhyay, Maya Sen, Arghya Sen, Ritu Guha, Sumitra Sen, Tarun Majumdar, Madhabi Mukhopadhyay and Sovon Som. Songs by Mohan Singh, Buddhadev Guha, Abhirup Guha Thakurta, Swagatalakshmi Dasgupta, Indrani Sen, Lopamudra Mitra, Saikat Mitra, Indranil Sen, Sraboni Sen, Shibaji Chattopadhyay, Pramita Mallikck, Arundhati Holme Choudhury, Rajasree Bhattacharya, Anushila Basu, Debarati Som, Agnibha Bandyopadhyay, Rachaita Roy, Bikram Singh, Rahul Mitra, Pramit Sen, Pubali Debnath, Manomoy Bhattacharya and others. Recitation and reading by Soumitra Chattopadhyay, Raya Bhattacharya, Urmimala and Jagannath Basu, Gouri and Partha Ghosh, Rokeya Roy, Soumitra Mitra, June Malliah and others. Dance by students and teachers of Visva Bharati. May 18 at G.D. Birla Sabhagar; 10.30 am: Sangeet Ashram presents a classical vocal recital by Manas Chakraborty, accompanied by Samar Saha (tabla) and Ranjan Mukhopadhyay (harmonium). May 18 at Sisir Mancha; 6 pm: Saptak, Santiniketan presents Tagore’s Natir Puja. May 18 at Rotary Sadan; 6.30 pm: Abhinandan presents an evening of Tagore songs by Damayanti Bhattacharya, Mrinmay Roy, Swastika Mukhopadhyay and chorus by the artistes of Surangama. May 18 at Brahmo Sammilan Samaj, 1A Dr Rajendra Road, Bhowanipore; 6.30 pm: On the occasion of Maharshi Debendranath Tagore’s birth anniversary, Brahmo Sammilan Samaj presents a musical offering (compositions of Maharshi Debendranath and Rabindranath) by Sudeshna Basu.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Till May 28 (except Sundays) at Gallery Sanskriti, 5C Alipore Park Road; 11 am - 7 pm: A set of 20 photographs, by Bivas Bhattacharjee, son of renowned contemporary painter Bikash Bhattacharjee. Till May 30 (except Sundays) at Gallery Kanishka’s, 2/1 Hindusthan Road; 11 am - 8 pm: Portraits of a Director — an exhibition of photographs on Satyajit Ray by Asit Poddar. Till May 31 (except Mondays) at Bose Pacia Kolkata, Stephens Court, 18 Park Street, #40010148; 11 am - 7 pm: Bose Pacia Kolkata Gallery, the Embassy of France in India and Alliance Française du Bengale host India by Magnum: Plural Perspectives, a projected exhibition by 14 photographers from Magnum Photos.

FILM FESTIVAL

Till May 20 at Nandan II: Cine Central, Calcutta, in collaboration with Nandan, EZCC, UNICEF and in associtaion with Rishra Municipality and Beleghata Education Aid Centre, presents 8th International Children’s Film Festival. Today: Hen in a Boot (Germany) at 2 pm; Aladdin’s Magic Lamp (Russia) at 4 pm; and Valuas Ticket (Netherlands) and Story of Tiblu (India) at 6 pm. Tomorrow: Sergent Pepper (Germany) at 2 pm; The Prog Prophecy (France) at 4 pm; and Sooriya Arana (Sri Lanka) at 6 pm. Tomorrow at Purbashree, EZCC, Salt Lake: Finist the Bright Falcon (Russia) at 2 pm; Peter Pan (USA) at 4 pm; and Baby’s Day Out (USA) at 6 pm.

WORKSHOP

May 19 - 25 at Rabindra Sadan (2nd floor); 10 am - 5 pm: Shinjan Nrityalaya, in collaboration with Rajya Sangeet Academy, hosts a workshop on Odissi dance, to be conducted by Aloka Kanungo and assisted by Sharmistha Pani. Also, lectures and discussions on dance and yoga. May 19 - 29 at Marudhara, 6 Merlin Park: A workshop on Rajasthani folk song and bhajan. To be conducted by Roshan Khan of Rajasthan. Details at #2460 7356.

QUIZ

May 18 at International School of Business & Media, EN-22, Sector V, Salt Lake; 10 am: Mahaquizzer, a written individual quiz. No entry fee. Registration from 9.30 am. Details with Shouvik (98300 92766) or Jayashree (98309 33334)

reading

May 18 at G.D. Birla Sabhagar; 11 am: Professor P. Lal reads Sanjaya's report to Dhritarastra of the death of ten of his sons, Arjuna killing Karna's son Vrisasena, and Krishna urging Arjuna to implement his vow to kill Karna, in the 425th weekly session of his sloka-by-sloka English transcreation of Vyasa's Mahabharata. 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