Into a world of hope and sunshine The realisation that “the child is father of the man” had dawned on William Wordsworth way back in 1802, and how apt was he in his observation! Time and again we have witnessed the power of innocent children who, with their clear and innocent vision, lead the myopic grown-ups into a world of peace, one that is not fragmented by petty issues. We often look up to children to guide us through life’s dark dungeons into an illuminated universe. In fact, children’s theatre provides an excellent medium of communication between the young and the adults. Nehru Children’s Museum has been instrumental in bridging this gap to a large extent by providing quality education, entertainment and enrichment for all ages through the performing arts. It is going to host its fifth annual drama festival beginning this evening with Jadiyo Sandhya (a scene from the play appears here). Set in contemporary Indian urban society, the play depicts youths and children who are tremendously swayed by anything that is imported from the West. They hopelessly emulate their counterparts who have been brought up differently in the West. These kids are even willing to give up their time-tested tradition and culture. This results in a hopeless situation. But, not everything is lost yet. Not as long as families like the Ghosals exist who have strong conviction to cling on to tradition. With this power of conviction, the momentary clouds evaporate and sunshine and hope resume. Written and directed by Rama Prasad Banik, the plays will be performed by the little members of Nehru Children’s Museum theatre ensemble. The line-up for the other days are: Bhanga Buker Panjore (May 28), Anubhav (May 29) and on May 30, Saraswati Samipeshu will be premiered. Event: Fifth drama festival organised by Nehru Children’s Museum When: May 27 - May 30; 6.30 pm Where: Academy of Fine Arts

art

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 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 May 30 at The Peerless Inn lobby: An exhibition of paintings by Souryeya Chakraborty. Till May 31 at Akar Prakar, P 238 Hindustan Park, #2464 2617; 2 pm - 7 pm: Summer Show of works by Suhas Roy, Samir Roy and Samit Dey. Till May 31 at Chitrakoot Art Gallery, 55 Gariahat Road, #2475 2275; 3 pm - 8 pm: Chitrakoot presents works by Shyam Sharma. Till May 31 at Chemould Art Gallery, 12F park Street; 2 pm - 7 pm: An exhibition of paintings by Suvra Chandra. Till May 31 at Shree Art Gallery, 11 Gurusaday Road, Kusum Apartment, Flat no. 61, #30222040; 3 pm - 7 pm: Bengal Contemporary Art — An exhibition of exclusive artworks by 20 promising artists of Bengal. Till June 3 (except Sunday) at The Palladian Lounge, Bengal Chamber of Commerce & Industry; 11 am - 8 pm: A solo exhibition of paintings on canvas by Vandana Lohia. Till June 7 (except Sunday) at Galerie 88, 28B Shakespeare Sarani, #2290 2274; 11 am - 7 pm, Mondays (2 pm - 7 pm): Sculptures by Meera Mukherjee. Till June 8 (except Tuesdays) at The Halo Heritage Gallery, 26 Ritchie Road, Maddox Square; 2 pm - 8 pm: Inner Eye, an exhibition of paintings on canvas by Jonaki Pal. Till June 17 at Genesis Art Gallery, 8B Middleton Street, #2229 3886; 2 pm - 7 pm: Showcasing a host of latest works by contemporary, radical artists. 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. Till July 31 (except Sundays) at Ganges Art Gallery, 33A Jatin Das Road, #2465 3212; 11 am - 7 pm: Installation Photographs Video Art. Participating artists: Jayashree Chakravarty, Aditya Basak, Chhatrapati Dutta, Paula Sengupta, Sanjeet Chowdhury, Debnath Basu, Tapati Chowdhury and Adip Dutta. Curated by Jayashree Chakravarty.

DRAMA

May 27 at Madhusudan Mancha; 6.30 pm: Sayak presents Chandan Sen’s Dildar. Direction: Meghnad Bhattacharya. May 28 at Madhusudan Mancha; 6.30 pm: Anya Theatre presents Aachhe Aachhe Sthan, with Bibhas Chakraborty in the lead. Direction: Ramaprasad Banik.

DRAMA FESTIVAL

May 27 - 30 at Academy of Fine Arts; 6.30 pm: The 5th Drama Festival organised by Nehru Children’s Museum. May 27: Jadiyo Sandhya. May 28: Bhanga Buker Panjore. May 29: Anubhav. May 30: Saraswati Samipeshu. Students of Nehru Children’s Museum will act in all the four plays, directed by Ramaprasad Banik.

PERFORMING ARTS

Till May 31 at Rathindra Mancha, Jorasanko Thakurbari; 5.30 pm: Rabindra Janmotsav organised by Rabindra Bharati Society. Today: Songs by Pramita Mallick, Bibhas Ghosh, Debarati Shome and Chitralekha Chowdhury. Also, geeti-alekhya, Puja O Prakritir Gaan (Concept: Suchitra Mitra), presented by Rabi-Tirtha. May 30 - June 1 at Uttam Mancha: Rasikhapriya presents its mid-year series of Carnatic classical music programme. May 30, 6.30 pm: R. Thiagarajan (flute) with B. Ananthakrishnan (violin) and Nagai S. Narayanan (mridangam). May 31, 4.15 pm: Kunnakkudi Master M. Balamuralikrishna (vocal) with Anayampatti G. Venkatasubramanian (violin) and K.V. Gopalakrishnana (mridangam); at 6.30 pm: Dr Pantula Rama (vocal) with MSN Murthy (violin) and Mangalagiri Sridhar (mridangam). June 1, 4.15 pm: Sikkil C. Gurucharan (vocal) with Anayampatti G. Venkatasubramanian (violin) and K.V. Gopalakrishnana (mridangam); at 6.30 pm: Mala Ramadorai (Hindusthani vocal) with Abhay Datar (tabla) and Ananth Joshi (harmonium). May 30 at Gyan Manch; 6.30 pm: Mohar-Kanika presents Chena Mohar Achena Britte, an evening of Tagore songs by Shubhasree Roy, Moushumi Chowdhury, Shyamasree Bandyopadhyay, Indrani Dasgupta, Sohini Mukhopadhyay, Ranjini Mukhopadhyay, Heerak Mukhopadhyay, Somali Mukhopadhyay, Priyam Mukhopadhyay, Ritapa Bhattacharya, Ritaja Chowdhury and Sayan Bandyopadhyay. Narration and reading: Rajat bandyopadhyay and Chaitali Dasgupta. June 1 at G.D. Birla Sabhagar; 6 pm: Bhavna Records & Cassettes presents an evening of Tagore songs by Sreeradha Bandyopadhyay, Manoj Murali Nair, Shampa Kundu, Mrinmay Roy and Manisha Murali Nair.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Till May 28 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 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 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.

TALK

May 27 at Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Shivananda Hall; 6 pm: Kana Chatterjee will speak in Bengali on Rishir Chokhe Ei Prithivi. May 27 at Ramakrishna Vedanta Math, 19B Raja Rajkrishna Street; 7 pm: Swami Atmabodhananda will discuss in Bengali Sri Sri Mayer Katha.

INTERACTIVE SESSION

May 27 at Crossword Bookstore, 8 Elgin Road; 11.30 am: An interactive and book-signing session with the coach of Kolkata Knight Riders and former coach of Australia’s national cricket team, John Buchanan, for his recently launched book, If Better is Possible.

WORKSHOP

May 27 - 31 at Starmark, Lord Sinha Road; 10.30 am - 12.30 pm: Mad Science workshops for 6 to 12-year-olds designed by a professional team of educators and scientists. Topics: Day 1 - Lights, colour, action + Seeking our senses; Day 2 - Magnetic magic + Dinosaurs; Day 3 - Optical illusions + Harnessing heat; Day 4 - Mineral mania + Sonic sounds, Day 5 - Tantalising taste + Where’s the air. Registration at #9903985097. May 28 - 30 at Nehru Children’s Museum; 12 noon - 3 pm: Three-day workshop on Natural Sand painting for children 12 years to 16 years. To be conducted by Madhurima Goswami. May 28 - 30 & June 4 at Nehru Children’s Museum; 4 pm - 7 pm: Four-day workshop on Redefining Nritya - Changing Trends in Bharata Natyam for the age group 14 years to 25 years. To be conducted by Arkadev Bhattacharjee.

FILM SHOW

Till May 29 at Nandan II; 4 pm & 6.30 pm: The Consulate General of Italy, in collaboration with Nandan West Bengal Film Centre, presents the screening of a package of Italian films (Neapolitan cinema). May 27: Libera (Free; Dir: Pappi Corsicato) at 4 pm and Planese Nunzio, 14 Anni A Maggio (Pianese Nunzio, 14 in May; Dir: Antonio Capuano) at 6.30 pm. May 28: Teatro Di Guerra (Rehearsal for War; Dir: Mario Martone) at 4 pm and Il Verificatore (The Gas Inspector; Dir: Stefano Incerti) at 6.30 pm. May 29, 4 pm: I Vesuviani (The Vesuvians), Director: A Capuano, M. Martone, P. Corsicato, A. De Lillo, S. Incerti.

EXHIBITION

Till May 31 at Cottage Emporium, 7 Jawaharlal Nehru Road: Central Cottage Industries Corporation of India Ltd, popularly known as Cottage, hosts Summer Cool, an indoor exhibition of cotton sarees, produced from masterweavers.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