Lilliputs lord on stage Children live in an increasingly complex world, and their real concerns deserve to be addressed. Nandikar’s Children-friendly Festival of Plays focuses on this specific area and presents a bouquet of six plays. This evening, it hosts Sunil Gangopadhyay’s Satyi Rajputra (direction: Sohini Sengupta; lyrics, music and dramatisation by Swatilekha Sengupta) and Three Little Piglets and The Frog Prince (picture along; both snippets by Tyst Theatre, a Swedish silence group in association with members of Nandikar’ Children’s Ensemble, local children with speech and hearing impairment and performers from Hooghly, Howrah and Salt Lake). Satyi Rajputra is about a boy who is tauntingly referred to by his schoolmates as Rajputra simply because his ancestors once ruled the land. The boy’s family tries hard to put up a show and re-live those bygone days despite meagre resources. The external pomp and splendour attract unwanted attention and one day the boy is kidnapped from school.... Tyst Theatre’s improvisational, process-centred form of drama culminates in the performance of two well-known fairy tales. The exuberance and spontaneity of the kids are infectious. The festival concludes tomorrow (May 25) and members of Nandikar’ Children’s Ensemble will present Satyajit Ray’s Pil-Pil-Pil (drama & direction: Susanta Mandal) and Guidance Academy will stage Rajesh Basu’s SMS-e-Esho (drama & direction: Anirban Roychowdhury). Pil-Pil-Pil is about the funny and frolicking caprices of five families of cats, herons, ducks, parrots and ants — each family has five naughty off-springs. With 60 children on stage it’s nothing less than fun and merry-making all the way. Event: Nandikar’s Children-friendly Theatre Festival When: Today at 6.30 pm & tomorrow at 10 amWhere: Girish Mancha

art

Till May 24 at Chemould Art Gallery, 12F Park Street, #2229 8641; 2 pm - 7 pm: The Fragmented Traditions — recent paintings by Aloke Kumar Paul. Till May 24 at Chitrakoot Art Gallery, 55 Gariahat Road, #2475 2275; 4 pm - 8 pm: Different Strokes, an exhibition of sculptures by Tarun Purkait. Till May 25 at Seagull Arts and Media Resource Centre, 36C S.P. Mukherjee Road, #2455 6942/43; 2 pm - 8 pm: An exhibition of works by Somnath Hore. Till May 25 at Academy of Fine Arts; 3 pm - 8 pm: The 23rd group exhibition of painting and sculpture by Debasish Ghosh, Babua Das, Purnendu Dey, Dipnarayan Paul, Shyamali Haldar, Ranjan Paul, Shalini Chanda, Krishnendu Dey and Sukla Bhattacharyya. Till May 25 at The Promenade lounge, Taj Bengal; 10 am - 11 pm: The Doorways — a solo exhibition of recent works by Subuddha Ghosh. The artist will be painting live from 3 pm to 6 pm. Till May 25 at Metropolitan Art Salon, Suite 18, 7 Jawaharlal Nehru Road; #2228 9719; 3 pm - 8 pm: An exhibition of paintings by Loknath Yadav. Till May 25 at Birla Academy of Art & Culture; 3 pm - 7 pm: Construction of Images, an exhibition of paintings by Albert Ashok and his students. Till May 30 at Tejas Art Gallery, 11 Mayfair Road, #98300 49825; 4 pm - 7.30 pm: A collection of paintings by contemporary upcoming artists Bikas Karmakar, Partha Chatterjee, Sk Shahajahan, Shekhar Baran Karmakar, Sambhu Saha and others. Till May 30 (except Sunday) at Weavers Studio Centre for Arts, 94 Ballygunge Place, #24604245; 6 pm: Inner Vision, an exhibition of terracotta sculptures by Durgadas, a visually impaired sculptor. Till July 5 (except Sundays & public holidays) at CIMA Gallery, Sunny Towers, 43 Ashutosh Chowdhury Avenue, #2485 8717/8509; Mondays: 3 pm - 7 pm, Tuesdays - Saturdays: 2 pm - 7 pm: Summer Show featuring works by Jayasri Burman, Rashmi Bagchi Sarkar, Rameshwar Broota, Jogen Chowdhury, Rini Dhumal, Ramendra Nath Kastha, Paresh Maity, Uday Mondal, Santosh More, Rm. Palaniappan, Manu Parekh, Ganesh Pyne, Malay Saha, Dilip Kumar Samanta, Kingshuk Sarkar, Shambhavi, Lalu Prosad Shaw, Mayank Kumar Shyam, Sanjeev Sonpimpare and others.

DRAMA

May 24 at Academy of Fine Arts; 3 pm: Nat-Ranga presents Gulbaaj, the Man of the Match. Direction: Sohan Bandyopadhyay. May 24 at Academy of Fine Arts; 6.30 pm: Ajantrik presents Pratham Paath. Written & directed by Ramaprasad Banik. May 24 & 25 at Max Mueller Bhavan auditorium; 6.30 pm: Agunmukho, a joint production of Max Mueller Bhavan Calcutta and Tritiyo Sutra, it is based on the original German play, Feuergesicht, by Marius von Mayenburg. Bengali adaptation: Bratya Basu. Direction: Suman Mukhopadhyay. May 24 at Madhusudan Mancha; 6.45 pm: Sudrak presents Purbo Nirdharito. May 25 at Academy of Fine Arts; 3 pm: Adventure — Aneek’s latest production, directed by Moloy Biswas. May 25 at Academy of Fine Arts; 6.30 pm: Bohurupee presents Aayna Harin. Direction: Tarapada Mukhopadhyay. May 25 at Bijon Theatre; 6.30 pm: Natyachanda presents Dongson. Drama: Anjan Bagchi. Music & direction: Manab Roy. May 25 at Padatik’s Buildwell Theatre; 7 pm: Little Thespian presents Katha Collage I, consisting of three stories of Saadat Hassan manto: Khol Do, Thanda Ghost and Aulaad. Design & direction: S.M. Azhar Aalam.

PERFORMING ARTS

May 24 in front of Academy of Fine Arts; 5 pm: Mimic will stage the street-mime, Chair and Gush. May 24 at Rabindra Sadan; 6 pm: West Bengal Dance Group Federation presents Stars of Tomorrow, featuring young talents in the field of dance. The concluding evening features Debanjana Roy (Manipuri), Deepshikha S. Das (Bharata Natyam), Rajashri Praharaj (Odissi) and Amrita Bandyopadhyay (Kathak). May 24 at Nirmal-Pratap Chunder Sabhakaksha, 23 Nirmal Chunder Street; 6 pm: Remembering Tagore with discussion, song and recitation. Songs by Uma Mukhopadhyay, Alpana Sengupta and Baitanik Shilpi Gosthi. May 25 at Sastha Samooham, 42 Lake Avenue; 6.05 pm: The violin arangetram of Arun Venkitaraman, disciple of Vasantha Kannan. He will be accompanied by N. Shankar on the mridangam.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Till May 26 at Academy of Fine Arts, South Gallery; 3 pm - 8 pm: An exhibition of photographs by the members of Association of Freelance Photographers and Art Pictorialists. Till May 28 (except Sunday) at Gallery Sanskriti, 5C Alipore Park Road; 11 am - 7 pm: A set of 20 photographs, by Bivas Bhattacharjee Till May 30 (except Sunday) 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 Monday) 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 25 at Purbashree, EZCC, Salt Lake: 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: Barbara the Fair with the Silken Hair (Russia) at 2 pm; Floris (Netherlands) at 4 pm; and Podi Pishir Barmi Baksho (India) at 6 pm. Tomorrow: Aaj Ka Robinhood (India) at 2 pm, Jungle Book (USA) at 4 pm, and Sergeant Pepper (Germany) at 6 pm. oday at Labour Welfare Centre, Kankurgachi: Father Frost (Russia) at 2 pm; Give the Devil its Due (Czech) at 4 pm; and Aaj Ka Robinhood (India) at 6 pm. Today at Rishra Rabindra Bhavan: Banker (Netherlands) at 2 pm; The Donkey’s Hide (Russia) at 4 pm; and Kabuliwala (India) at 6 pm.

TALK

May 24 at Ramakrishna Mission Saradapitha, Belur Math; 6 pm: Swami Tattwajnanananda will speak on Kenopanishad. May 24 at Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Shivananda Hall; 6 pm: Arupratan Bhattacharya will speak in Bengali on Vijnaner Aloke Chetana. May 24 at Ramakrishna Vedanta Math, 19B Raja Rajkrishna Street; 7 pm: Swami Paramatmananda will speak on Siksha, Samaj O Dharma.

POETRY

May 24 at Rooftop, 120 Lenin Sarani; 6 pm - 8 pm: Srijan’s Summertime Poetry Grove features poetry-adda with Anjana Basu, Anjum Katyal, Arthur Cardozo, Boudhayan Mukherjee, Inam Hussain Mullick, Joy Goswami, Mary Ann Dasgupta, NN Harlalka, Nawal, Pawan Maskara, Rimi Chatterjee, Samarendra Sengupta, Utpal, Vinay Sharma and Deb Narayan Banerjee. Also participating would be Zilka Joseph, an ex-Calcuttan now settled in the US who teaches and writes poetry.

WORKSHOP

Till May 25 at Starmark, 3 Lord Sinha Road; 10.30 am - 12.30 pm: A workshop on puppet-making by Swapna Sen and Lana Royce, to be followed by storytelling by Mira and Daleep Kakkar. May 24 - 29 at Mayur Lalit, Naktala, 12-D/4/1; 9 am - 1 pm: Odissi dance workshop by Debamitra Sengupta on exquisite compositions of Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra along with yoga, dance-related makeup and stagecraft. Details at #24711246. May 25 - 27 at Calcutta School of Music, 6B Sunny Park; 10 am - 1 pm: Makhla Shinjini hosts a workshop on dance (based on classical style). Details at #26637417, 9831029506.

READING

May 25 at G.D. Birla Sabhagar; 11 am: Professor P. Lal reads Sanjaya's report of Brahma and Siva foretelling victory for Arjuna over Karna, and Arjuna discussing with Krishna the impending clash, while Karna discusses it with Salya, in the 426th 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