Beyond a ringside view The circus. A world of colours, festoons, confetti and shades of glitz. Yet, photographer Saibal Das has captured this world of fun, frolic and fantasy in stark, sober tones of black and white. Perhaps, his interest lies far beyond the world of illusion that circus artistes conjure up for us in the ring. Das has drawn our attention to the real world that they inhabit, where survival and livelihood are tougher than triple somersaults on the trampoline. Mera Naam Joker, his ongoing exhibition of circus photographs, reveals poignant human moments of circus life. A girl who performs with a lioness is seen sitting dispassionately in front of a mirror donning her make-up, while the lioness paws her shoulders affectionately. Yearning for stardom, conventional family life, or freedom from rigorous routine, circus performers must inevitably put on their costumes, ride up the ladder and fly through the air on a trapeze in their elusive quest to escape into the world that we live in. Event: Circus photographs by Saibal Das When: Till March 21; 2 pm - 8 pm Where: Seagull Arts and Media Resource Centre, 36C S.P. Mukherjee Road

art

March 21 - April 1 at Birla Academy of Art & Culture; 4 pm - 8 pm: A group exhibition of the works by the members of Painters 80. Participating artists: Alik Das, Amit Chakrabarti, Amitava Dhar, Bhaskar Mukherjee, Dipankar Dutta, Debasish Chakraborty, Pradosh Paul and Tarun Dey. March 21 - April 1 at Birla Academy of Art & Culture; 3 pm - 8 pm: Painted Delights, an exhibition of the works of contemporary artists of India. Inauguration today at 6 pm. Till March 23 at Artists Circle, 46 Circus Avenue: Shakti: Journey Beyond Platitude — an exhibition of works by eminent women artists. Participants include Anita Roy Choudhury, Shyamasree Basu, Eleena Banik, Uma Roy Chowdhury, Gita Maiti, Sohini Dhar, Tandra Chandra, Manju Shaw, Anjali Sengupta and Seema Barua. Till March 24 at Chemould Art Gallery, 12F Park Street; 2 pm - 7 pm: Disha - Annual Art Exhibition 2007. Participants: Subrata Bhowmick, Kavita Jhunjhunwala, Sangita Chirimar, Seema Chaturvedi, Anju Chirimar, Dolly Dabriwal, Jyoti Tibrewal and Vrinda Dugar. Till March 24 at Genesis Art Gallery, 8B Middleton Street; 2 pm - 7 pm: Art Unlimited — an exhibition of art works by various artists and sculptors. Till March 24 at Gallery Exposure, 54B Mahanirban Road; 4 pm - 8 pm: An exhibition of paintings by members of Bengal Artist Society. Till March 26 at Masters Collection Art Gallery, G7 Malayalay Apts, 3 Woodburn Park; 11 am - 7 pm (weekdays) & 3 pm - 7 pm (Sunday): Small is Beautiful, an exhibition of miniature works of Indian contemporary artists. Till March 28 at Mon Art Gallerie, 6 Hungerford Street, Regency, 3rd floor; 11 am - 7 pm (Sunday, 2 pm - 7 pm): Coloured Spaces, a solo show by Dhaneshwar Shah (New Delhi). Till March 31 at Idiyas Gallery, 15 Dover Road; 10.30 am - 7.30 pm: Poetry on Canvas, an exhibition of paintings by eminent artists. Till April 1 at Gallery Rasa, 828/1 Block P, New Alipore; 4 pm - 8 pm: A solo exhibition of paintings by Debasish Manna. Till April 18 at Spandan Art Gallery, 87 Park Street, 1st floor; 10 am - 7 pm: An exhibition, titled Art, featuring works of Keshav Roy.

drama

March 21 at Academy of Fine Arts; 6.30 pm: Blank Verse presents Furrut: A Theatre for Children, based on Upendra Kishore Roychowdhuri’s masterpiece. Direction: Raja Bhattacharya. March 21 at Girish Mancha; 6.30 pm: Nakshatra presents Buro Shalik. Direction: Shyamal Ghosh. March 22 at Madhusudan Mancha; 6.30 pm: Chokh presents its latest production, Atahkim Mahayuddha. Direction: Abhijit Kargupta. March 22 at Rabindra Sadan; 6.30 pm: Natadha presents three short plays, Karna Akhon, Lata and Echchhe Jadu. Direction: Shib Mukhopadhyay. March 22 at Academy of Fine Arts; 6.30 pm: Sameekshan presents Punarjanma. Direction: Pankaj Munshi. March 24 at Academy of Fine Arts; 3 pm: Pancham Vaidic presents Pashu Khamar. Direction: Arpita Ghosh. March 24 at Girish Mancha; 6.30 pm and March 25 at Academy of Fine Arts; 10.15 am: Howrah Dakshinayan presents Hawa Badal. Direction: Kunal Mukhopadhyay. March 24 at Academy of Fine Arts; 7 pm: Rangapat presents Tusher Aagun. March 24 & 25 at Max Mueller Bhavan auditorium; 6.30 pm: Agunmukho, the Bengali adaptation of Marius von Mayenburg’s contemporary German play Feuergesicht (Fireface) by Bratya Basu will be performed by Tritiyo Sutra. Direction: Suman Mukhopadhyay. March 25 at Girish Mancha; 6.30 pm: Shohan presents Helmet. Direction: Anish Ghosh. March 25 at Academy of Fine Arts; 6.30 pm: Bohurupee presents Deepadanda. Direction: Kumar Roy. March 25 at Pyarimohan Library Hall, Belghoria; 6.30 pm: Belghoria Ethic presents Sanglagna Kuashara. March 25 at Sisir Mancha; 7 pm: Little Thespian presents ? (question mark). Design and direction: S.M. Azhar Aalam.

PERFORMING ARTS

March 21 at Gyan Manch; 6 pm: A solo performance by Dohar Bangla band. March 22 at Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Vivekananda Hall; 6 pm: A jugalbandi featuring Mor Mukut Kedia (sitar) and Manoj Kumar Kedia (sarod) with Subhankar Banerjee on the tabla. March 24 at Bhowanipur Sangit Sammilani, 4 Ramesh Mitra Road; 5.30 pm: A classical music soiree featuring Sudip Chattopadhyay (violin) and Kuber Sengupta (vocal). March 26 at Rabindra Sadan; 6 pm: Bhavan presents an evening of Tagore songs by Manoj Murali Nair and Manisha Murali Nair.

talk

March 21 at Ramakrishna Mission Saradapitha, Belur Math; 5.30 pm: Swami Tyagarupananda will speak on Gitar Vani. March 21 at Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Vivekananda Hall; 6.15 pm: Swami Prabhananda will speak in English on Chhandogya Upanishad. March 21 at Ramakrishna Vedanta Math, 19B Raja Rajkrishna Street; 7 pm: Swami Buddhatmananda will speak in Bengali on Bani O Bichar.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Till March 23 at Gaganendra Shilpa Pradarshashala; 2 pm - 8 pm: Fractals of Light — an exhibition of photographs by the members of Jadavpur University Photographic Club.

WORLD POETRY DAY

March 21 at Bharatiya Bhasha Parishad auditorium; 5.30 pm: Bharatiya Bhasha Parishad and Indian Writers Association host World Poetry Day. On this occasion veteran Hindi and Bengali poets Kedarnath Singh and Nirendranath Chakravarti will read their poems. Also, local poets in different languages will read their poems. Participants: Assamese: Gautam Prasad Barua. Bengali: Samarendra Sengupta, Ashis Sanyal, Mrinal Basu Chowdhury, Apurba Dutta, Jyotirmay Das, Manisankar Roy, Ishita Bhaduri and Rama Simlai. Hindi: Kusum Jain, Prafulla Kolakhyan, Neelkamal, and Priyankar Paliwal. Oriya: K.C. Bhunya. Urdu: Zarina Zarin.

FILM SHOW

March 21 at Gorky Sadan; 6 pm: The concluding day of a three-day festival of documentary films, to commemorate India’s 150th anniversary of the First War of Independence and 60 years of Independence, features 1857 — The Beginning (dir: Bhanumurthy Alur), Moving Perspective (dir: Mrinal Sen), An Indian Day (dir: S. Sukhdev) and Arrival (dir: Mani Kaul).

EXHIBITION

March 21 & 22 at Starmark, 3 Lord Sinha Road and March 23 - 25 at Starmark, G-202, City Centre, Salt Lake; 10.30 am - 9 pm: An exhibition of postage stamps on cricket and cricket memorabilia on the occasion of the ICC World Cup 2007.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