North-east culture carnival An initiative of the Ministry of Culture, Government of India, OCTAVE 2010 is a three-day festival that attempts to bring into focus the culture of the country’s eight north-eastern states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura. More than 200 participants including folk dancers, classical dancers, musicians, craftspersons, theatrepersons, painters and even poets and writers will take part in the event, portraying in various ways the distinctiveness of the culture of this part of the country. To be inaugurated today at 6 pm by M.K. Narayanan, Governor of West Bengal, the inaugural day’s programme will feature colourful folk dances of each of the north-eastern states. Folk dancers will parade in their traditional costumes tomorrow and on March 31. Besides, there will be classical dances including Sattriya dance of Assam (picture here) and Manipuri Raas dance of Manipur. Two plays, Aakash (Assam) and Dharti Aba (Tripura) will be staged at Minerva Theatre (March 30 and March 31). A crafts fair, a painting exhibition and a literary meet (at Bangla Akademi) with a seminar and a poets’ conference will also be part of this unique event. Event: Art and culture festival of the north-eastern states of India When: March 29 -31 Where: Bharatiyam Cultural Multiplex, IB-201 Salt Lake

ART

Till April 3 (except Sundays & public holidays) at CIMA Gallery, #2485 8717; Monday: 3 pm - 7 pm; Tuesday - Saturday: 2 pm - 7 pm: Symbols & Metaphors — an exhibition of the works of Samir Aich, Rashmi Bagchi Sarkar, Alok Bal, A. Balasubramaniam, Sumitro Basak, Shreyasi Chatterjee, Jogen Chowdhury, Partha Pratim Deb, Atul Dodiya, Jaya Ganguly, Gopal Ghosh, M.F. Husain, Farhad Hussain, Jitish Kallat, Paresh Maity, Veer Munshi, Baiju Parthan, Ganesh Pyne, Kingshuk Sarkar, Mayank Kumar Shyam, Arpita Singh, Sanjeev Sonpimpare, Ram Singh Urveti and others. March 29 - April 2 at Chemould Art Gallery, 12 Park Street; 2 pm - 7 pm: A group exhibition of paintings in tribute to Nabyendu Chatterjee. Till March 31 at Calcutta Information Centre (ground floor); 2 pm - 8 pm: Alok Rekhay presents its 7th Members’ Exhibition. Till March 31 at Academy of Fine Arts, New-South ‘B’ Gallery; 3 pm - 8 pm: Paintings by Partha Roy, Biswa Basu, Subrata Saha, Susanta Chowdhury and Puspen Roy. Till March 31 at Academy of Fine Arts, New South ‘A’ Gallery; 3 pm - 8 pm: Rhetoric of Gender — paintings by Ratna Bose. Till March 31 at Academy of Fine Arts, West Gallery; 3 pm - 8 pm: Amra — paintings and sculptures by Palash Halder, Gopal Pal and Manoj Das. Till March 31 at Seagull Arts and Media Resource Centre, 36C S.P. Mukherjee Road, #2455 6942/43; 2 pm - 8 pm: In Sync — recent works by Anand Gadapa and Nirmala Biluka. Till March 31 at Emami Chisel Art Pvt. Ltd, Emami Towers, 687 Anandapur, E.M. Bypass, #4011 3182/3183; 11 am - 7 pm: Logged, drawings by contemporary artists of India. Till March 31 at Ahuja Museum for the Arts, 26 Lee Road, #4003 4974; 12 noon - 7 pm: Colombian Art by Antonio Zapata. Till March 31 (except today) at Gallery Rasa, 828/1 Block-P New Alipore, #24007348; 3 pm - 8 pm: The graphic world of M.F. Husain. Till March 31 at Weavers Studio Centre for the Arts (94 Ballygune Place) & at K2 Gallery (Supra Court, 35 Lansdowne Terrace); 10 am - 7 pm: From Pain to Paint — paintings from The Bindu Art School. Till March 31 at Gallery Indian Images, 60/128 Haripada Dutta Lane, Golf Gardens, #98746 71820: First Leaf of Spring — the inaugural exhibition of the gallery features paintings, sculptures and photographs. Till April 1 at Gurusaday Museum Hall; 12 noon - 6 pm: Gurusaday Museum, in collaboration with Resonance (a group of artists) & Centre of Photo Technology, presents an exhibition of paintings and photographs. Till April 4 (except Monday) at Birla Academy of Art & Culture; 3 pm - 8 pm: Changing Images — an exhibition by the faculty members of Rabindra Bharati University’s visual arts. Till April 7 (except Sunday) at Mon Art Gallery, 6 Hungerford Street, Regency, 3rd floor, #2289 5438; 11 am - 7.30 pm: The Way We Are, a group exhibition of works curated by Oindrilla Maity Surai.

DRAMA

March 29 at Girish Mancha; 6.30 pm: Bisarga presents Taalmatal, directed by Nupu Banerjee. March 30 at Girish Mancha; 6 pm: Renaissance presents its two Hindi products, Munshi Premchand’s Idd Gaah by its children theatre unit and Gardish, drama & direction: Avinash Gupta. March 31 at Academy of Fine Arts; 6.30 pm: Nat-Ranga will stage Shnuopoka. Drama & direction: Sohan Bandyopadhyay. April 1 at Academy of Fine Arts; 6.30 pm: Samstab will stage Mohit Chattopadhyay’s Bhootnath. Direction & performance: Dwijen Bandyopadhyay. April 4 at Madhusudan Mancha; 6.30 pm: Sayak will stage Jnan Briksher Fall, based on Tolstoy’s Fruits of Culture. Playwright: Chandan Sen. Direction: Meghnad Bhattacharya.

PERFORMING ARTS

April 2 at CLT, Aban Mahal; 5.45 pm: Rabichhabi presents Kabi Pranam, its 22nd annual programme of Tagore songs. Direction: Arijit Sarkar. April 2 at Kala Mandir; 6 pm: Kolikata Juba Sangha presents a programme to commemorate 150th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore. Featuring a grand finale with 20 vocalists and 20 instrumentalists in the orchestra on Tagore songs. Composed and directed by Debojyoti Bose. In second half, Bose will play the sarod with Bickram Ghosh on the tabla. April 3 at Gyan Manch; 6.30 pm: Padatik Dance Centre presents its annual Kathak show by junior and senior students who will perform choreographic items under the guidance of their respective gurus Madhumita Roy, Sandip Mullick, Souvik Chakraborty and also Nilanjana Sengupta (of Salt Lake branch).

TALK

March 29 at Ramakrishna Mission Saradapitha, Belur Math; 5.30 pm: Swami Tattwasarananda will speak on Naradiya Bhaktisutra. March 29 at Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Shivananda Hall; 6 pm: Dr R. Rybakov will speak in English on Ramakrishna Mission for the People in Russia. March 29 at Ramakrishna Mancha, Ramakrishna Mission Swami Vivekananda’s Ancestral House and Cultural Centre, 3 Gour Mohan Mukherjee Street; 6.30 pm: Swami Satyapriyananda will speak on Vivekchudamani. March 29 at Bidhannagar Ramakrishna Vivekananda Kendra; 6.30 pm: Sanjib Das Sharma will speak on Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita. March 29 at Bangla Akademi Sabhagriha; 6.30 pm: On the occasion of Utpal Dutt’s birth anniversary, Nandipat presents a talk on Rajnaitik Theatre by Suman Mukhopadhyay.

film Show

March 29 - 31 at Nandan II; 4 pm onwards: Federation of Film Societies of India, in collaboration with Alliance Francaise Du Bengale present Eric Rohmer Retrospective, a festival of films in tribute to Rohmer. To be inaugurated by filmmaker Buddhadeb Das Gupta today at 5.45 pm. To be screened today: My Night at Naud’s (3.30 pm) and Pauline at the Beach (5.45 pm). March 29 - April 1 at Gorky Sadan; 3.30 pm onwards: To commemorate the 39th anniversary of the liberation of Bangladesh, Eisenstein Cine Club of Calcutta and Rainbow Film Society of Dhaka in association with the Russian Centre of Science and Culture in Calcutta host a festival of films, The Heart of Bangladesh. To be inaugurated by Mrinal Sen today at 6 pm, followed by the screening of Shyamal Chhaya (dir: Humayun Ahmed).

EXHIBITION

Till March 30 at Taj Khazana, Taj Bengal; 9 am - 10 pm: Year-end special spring collection of an array of merchandise with sarees in different textures, weaves and hues (silks of Benares, hand block printed tussars, South Indian temples, georgettes, chiffons etc), western ensembles, pashminas, hand picked costume jewellery, select men’s garments, beach wear, contemporary paintings, objet d’art, wall coverings, floor coverings, fabrics and crafts items from various parts of the country. Till March 30 at 27 Mirza Ghalib Street, #22521586; 10 am - 7 pm (Monday to Saturday) & 10 am - 1 pm (Sunday): Sasha (association for craft producers) holds its annual show. Till April 14 at Design, 108 Raja Basanta Roy Road, #2466 4315; 11 am - 7.30 pm: Paramita Viswanathan’s special display of ‘Resist’ printed sarees, silks and south Indian cottons.

book launch

March 29 at Jibanananda Sabhaghar; 6.30 pm: Khaled Chowdhury will launch Debasish Roy Chowdhury’s Tripti Mitra Shilpe O Jibane. To be followed by readings from the book by Seema Mukhopadhyay and Arunita Roy Chowdhury. Hosted by Ratnabali.

SEMINAR

March 29 & 30 at Vivekananda Hall, Suvarna Jayanti Bhavan, Jadavpur University; 10 am onwards: The department of history, Jadavpur University is organising a national seminar on Cultural Representations as Historical Processes (with focus on aural and visual arts).

workshop

March 30 - April 9 at Twistnturns, Salt Lake: Wiorkshop on dance (old school hip-hop, locking/popping, house & b-boying) by Daddy P. Kundu from Virginia Commonwealth University. Programme director: Leon Henderson, 9831018015. March 31 - April 11 at Vipassana Centre, Dhamma Ganga, Harish Chandra Dutt Road: Vipassana Meditation residential courses. For details, call 25532855, 25833910, 22424561 or visit www.vri.dhamma.org

FESTIVAL

Till March 29 at Sri Thyagaraja Hall, P-530 Raja Basanta Roy Road, #2463 8296: Ved Bhavan Bhajan Samaj celebrates 70th Sri Ramanavami Mahotsavam. Today at 8 am: Tiruppugazh Bhajan by Anbargal. At 10.30 am: Panguni Uthiram- special bhajan by Erode Sri Rajamani Bhagavathar & party. At 6 pm: Anjaneya Utsavam by Erode Sri Rajamani Bhagavathar & party.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