The TimeOut Mint Planner
The TimeOut Mint Planner
DELHI
Dance
22 January
As part of the India International Centre annual day celebrations, Aniruddha Knight and Ensemble will present ‘From the Heart of a Tradition’, comprising rarely performed pieces from T. Balasaraswati’s repertoire. Aniruddha Knight, the soloist, is the only grandchild of Balasaraswati and the last direct inheritor of a hereditary style of dance representing the ninth generation. He is also a musician who has received training since infancy and is the disciple of his aunt T. Vegavahini. The accompanists are his father Douglas Knight (mridangam), Vidya Sankaranarayanan (nattuvangam and vocal), Usha Shivakumar (vocal) and T.R. Moorthy (flute). 6.30pm. India International Centre, 40, Lodhi Estate, Max Mueller Marg (2461-9431).
Lok Tarang
24-29 January
Music
Vidya Shah
20 January
The 78RPM records from the early 1900s of the likes of Zohrabai, Gauhar Jan and Kamla Jharia, in spite of their three-minute duration and poor recording quality, have continued to enchant more than three generations of music lovers. Shah’s upcoming concert is a tribute to these women and their music. The programme is titled ‘Phir Wohi Sangeet’ and is in collaboration with the New Delhi Gujarati Club. 7pm. India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road (4366-3333).
Kids
Book launch
22 January
It’s not often that children’s books find the space for book launches, but publishers Katha have good reason to celebrate the arrival of these two books. ‘The Famous Smile’ by Meenakshi Bharadwaj (illustrated by Iranian illustrator Rashin Kheiriyeh) and ‘Kaleh and the Singsong Castle’ by Rizio Yohannan Raj (illustrated by Iranian Anahita Taymourian) are beautiful books.
The illustrations, in two distinct styles, make the books a must read and see for all young kids. 6.30pm. India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road (4366-3333).
Theatre
National School of Drama Theatre Utsav
Until 20 January
Catch the last three days of the National School of Drama (NSD) theatre festival. NSD has a set of plays coming from all over India and the world to Delhi, occupying almost all the auditoria in Mandi House. National School of Drama, Bahawalpur House, 1, Bhagwandas Road (2338-4531). Tickets for each show in Siri Fort, Kamani, Shri Ram Centre, Abhimanch and LTG auditoriums are Rs10-100. Tickets for shows in Bahumukh and Sammukh auditoriums are Rs30. Abhimanch, Bahumukh and Sammukh auditoriums are all on the premises of NSD.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
23-25 January
Tim Supple’s exuberant production returns to Delhi a year after it opened here, and we can’t wait for second helpings. The British director turns Shakespeare’s most fantastical drama into a visual carnival that throbs with energy and eroticism. The cosmopolitan cast features actors from Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Sri Lanka and Maharashtra who speak in Bengali, Malayalam, English and Sinhalese, Tamil, Hindi and Marathi. The effect is electric. 7pm. Kamani Auditorium, 1, Copernicus Marg (2338-8084). Tickets: Rs300-500, available at the venue and at Reliance Web World.
MUMBAI
Art
Bombay Shots
Ongoing
Girangaon Out of Focus
18-20 January
Mumbai’s mills were already fast disappearing when Ajit Abhimeshi began to photograph them in 2005, in an effort to capture the changing face of Girangaon. A former resident of the area, 27-year-old Abhimeshi found that several decaying structures had given way to malls and office complexes even as the neighbourhoods around them stayed the same. Abhimeshi’s images, roughly 30 of which will be displayed at Rachna Sansad, help archive what’s still standing. His images show lone chimneys lost among new skyscrapers and neighbourhoods that house the last of Mumbai’s former mill labourers. 10am. Rachana Sansad Academy of Architecture, 278, Shankar Ghanekar Marg, Prabhadevi (6660-4733).
Fujifilm Supersix
23 January
Since 2004, Jindal Photo has been relying on a simple formula to promote photography among the country’s youth: It has organized exhibitions to show them how it’s done. Fujifilm Supersix, Jindal’s travelling photo exhibition, halts at six Indian cities every year, showcasing the best works of six selected photographers. Ten images by each photographer, shot across the country and curated in-house by Jindal Photo, bring attention to India’s protected and vanishing forest areas and the wildlife they support. 10am-6pm (Mon-Sat). Piramal Gallery, National Centre for the Performing Arts, NCPA Marg, Nariman Point.
Dance
India Jazz Suites
20 January
“We can get more done in one rehearsal than politicians can in a four-day meeting," joked Emmy Award-winning tap dancer Jason Samuels Smith about his collaboration with renowned Indian kathak dancer Chitresh Das. The two performers have developed a collaborative project that models the kind of brilliant repartee, friendly one-upmanship, deep mutual respect and unabashed desire to learn that politicians would do well to emulate. At the heart of this project is a piece called India Jazz Suites, being presented by the US Consulate as part of the Mumbai Festival.
India Jazz Suites starts out with each man performing a solo that shows his individual style and how he represents his particular cultural background. From there, the piece evolves into a duet.7pm. Tata Theatre, National Centre for the Performing Arts, NCPA Marg, near Hilton Tower, Nariman Point (6622-3737).
Music
Kris Correya + Tarun Shahani
18 January
Bounce at this battle of the beats at Blue Frog’s weekly electronica night.
10.30pm. Blue Frog, Mathuradas Mill Compound, Tulsi Pipe Road, Lower Parel (4033-2300).
Pranav Kumar Biswas + Bhaswati Mitra
22 January
Khayal Trust presents a concert by a pair of talented young vocalists, Pranav Kumar Biswas and Bhaswati Mitra. 6.30pm. PL Deshpande Academy, Ravindra Natya Mandir, Sayani Road, near Siddhivinayak Mandir, Prabhadevi (2431-2956).
Film
Baghdad Café
19 January
A radiant, oddball comedy drama about the relationship that develops between a fat Bavarian tourist (Marianne Sägebrecht), an irritable black truckstop owner (C.C.H. Pounder), and a weirdo artist (Jack Palance, smiling and delightful, in bandana and snakeskin boots), set in the dusty Arizona desert land of lonesome motels. Sägebrecht, her husband ditched along the way, arrives sweatily out of the yellow haze, absurdly decked out in buttoned-up suit, green felt hat and feather, high heels and suitcase; gradually she transforms, and is transformed by, the lives of a motley band of misfits who inhabit a dilapidated diner exotically named?The?Bagdad Café.?A?wish-fulfilling fable about culture clash and the melting pot, the film is also firmly grounded in telling and cinematically original observations. Director Percy Adlon’s method is at once intimate, quirky and affirmative: precise evocation of place, expressive colours, and a slow build-up of characters, allow him to raise the film effortlessly into realms of fantasy, shafted with magic and moments of epiphany. 1 hour 31 mins. 6.30 pm. Majlis, Cristina Apartments, First Floor, Lane opposite SL Electronics, near Kalina Police Chowki, Kalina, Santa Cruz (E) (6501-7723).
RECOMMENDED
NEW DELHI
Film
Tri Continental Film Festival 2008
18-21 January
The fourth Tri Continental film festival organized by Breakthrough, an international human rights organization, attempts to bring to the fore untold stories from the past. Tri Continental is a major platform for human rights cinema from the three continents that form part of the global South. We recommend ‘China Blue’ (Alliance, 18 January, 1pm), ‘VHS Kahloucha’ (IHC, 19 January, 8.30pm), ‘My First Contact; (Alliance, 20 January, 11am), ‘The Hands of Che Guevara’ (IHC, 21 January, 7pm), and ‘The Halfmoon Files’ (IHC, 21 January, 8.30pm). Visit www.breakthrough.tv for detailed schedule. India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road (2468-2222). ML Bhartia Auditorium, Alliance Française, 72, Lodhi Estate (4350-0200).
MUMBAI
Film
Darjeeling Limited
18 January
Texan dilettante, latter-day New Yorker and committed Euro-cinephile, Wes Anderson has packed his bags for India for his latest, with the work of Jean Renoir, Satyajit Ray and Merchant-Ivory preying on his mind. Our intrepid fabler lands in a hyper-colourful country that looks like a cleaned-up version of the subcontinent and the result hovers somewhere between the buzzy city-state of ‘Bottle Rocket’ and the over-fed principality of ‘The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou’.
Free of the slowly-creaking cogs of his last movie, ‘The Darjeeling Limited’ is more energetic; it’s a road-movie, set on a train, that’s conventional in its embrace of the journey as a path to healing. Adrien Brody and Jason Schwartzman are brothers cajoled by their domineering older sibling (Owen Wilson )—an unhappy businessman with a mysterious bandage around his head—to take a trip to India a year after their father’s death. It’s time for some serious bonding, escapades with snakes, a little romance and a dose of straight-faced tragedy. 1 hour 44 minutes. During show timings. In major theatres.
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