The TimeOut Mint Planner
The TimeOut Mint Planner
CHENNAI
Around town
Adiperuku Festival
24 July-1 August
The Madras Craft Foundation presents a week-long festival to create awareness about village traditions.
The highlight will be the Therukoothu performance by Chetpet Shanmugam and troupe. Eco-products from Thandarai and Arogya organics will be on sale. Sekar Raghavan of Akash Ganga (an organization that helps promote rainwater harvesting) will give a presentation on rainwater harvesting for schoolchildren on 28-30 July at 10.30 am.
The annual Children’s Mela is also being held at the venue. It will have puppet and magic shows, bullock-cart rides, glass-blowing demos and theatre for children.
11am-6pm. DakshinaChitra, Muttukadu, East Coast Road (24462435/24918943).
Around town
Discover the Leader in You
26 July
This one-day workshop conducted by Performance Edge, an organization dedicated to management consultant and corporate training, will help you discover your leadership skills through interesting exercises and improvisations, interspersed with case studies, discussions and other interactive sessions.
9.30am-5.30pm. Hotel Savera, 146, Dr Radhakrishnan Salai (28113475). Charges, Rs6,949 per person, inclusive of breakfast, lunch, tea and reading material. To register, call 9830151652.
Mango Dinner
24 July
Alliance Française de Madras (AFM), in association with Courtyard by Marriott hotel and Capricorn Food Products India Ltd, presents a special mango dinner. The menu consists of dishes such as peppered goat cheese medallion with Asian green mango salad, herbed ricotta and mango cannelloni, mint pesto with grilled bass, warm mango raisin tarts and mango raspberry coulis. The three-course meal will be paired with the appropriate wines.
7.30pm. Courtyard by Marriot, 564, Anna Salai, Teynampet (66764000). Prices, Rs850 per head, Rs750 for AFM members; registration at the AFM reception.
Art
Abstract Nature
Till 30 July
Gallery Sumukha presents Chennai-based Sanjana Rai’s abstract paintings. Best known for her show Project Pipe, this artist takes inspiration once again from nature to put together a thought-provoking series of paintings using different mediums. The bold colours and definition of lines stand out in her latest collection.
11am-6pm. Gallery Sumukha, 187, St Mary’s Road, Alwarpet (42112545)
Film
Distinto Amanecer (Another Dawn)
23 July
As a finale to the Mexican Film Festival organized by the Indo Cine Appreciation Foundation, in association with the embassy of Mexico, watch the 1943 hit, Distinto Amanecer, in which a union leader who is being pursued by the law meets his college sweetheart after a gap of many years. This Julio Bracho film has been compared with Casablanca for its drama, romance and pace.
6.15pm. South Indian Film Chamber Theatre, 605, Anna Salai, Thousand Lights mosque (28291507 / 28172437). Passes available at E 2-G, Parsn Apartments, Gemini Compound.
By Karuna Amarnath
DELHI
Dance
Bharatanatyam
24 July
To mark Guru Purnima, Chinmaya Mission’s Bhakti Pravah presents Dharohar, performed by disciples of Geeta Chandran. Dharohar is a classical Bharatanatyam performance conceptualized as both solo and group performance by Chandran’s senior disciples, who are also members of the Natya Vriksha Dance Company.
6.30pm. Chinmaya Hamco Auditorium, 89, Lodhi Estate (24643301).
Around town
Queer Café
24 July
An open mic evening at the Queer Café with readings, performances, poetry, songs, videos, films, mime, erotica, rants, raves, elegies, odes and limericks. The event is open to all. Entries are invited in any language. Time slot per reader/performer: 10 minutes.
6-9pm. The Attic, 36, Regal Building, Connaught Place (23746050). To sign up, email contact@nigah.org or call Akhil at 9350844449.
Film-making workshop
26 July
Growing Up—With Biodiversity is a three-day film-making workshop for children. A collaborative project by Chinh India’s Early Education Web Channel and the National Museum of Natural History, it aims to help children create a series of short films on exploring biodiversity. For ages 10-16.
10am-5pm. National Museum of Natural History, Tansen Marg (23314849). To register and for more details, email chinh_india@yahoo.co.in
Art
Genesis
29-31 July
Coal tar, as most construction contractors will tell you, is the best material with which to rain-proof your roof. According to self-taught Delhi artist Simran Lamba, it is also one of the most interesting materials with which to create art. Lamba’s current collection Genesis uses lead, aluminium, gauze, mesh, wax, bolts and nails. From animals to beetles, gods to funerals to everyday objects, Lamba works to create a mélange of concrete abstraction.
10am-8pm. Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road (43662009).
Three Painters
Till 31 July
An exhibition of works by Jaya Ganguly, Dileep Sharma and Jayanta Roy. Ganguly, who lives in Kolkata, hovers on the border between abstraction and figuration and explores expressionistic and even grotesque subjects. Her palette is reductive and refined, which brings a tribal affinity to her mask-like images and distorted forms. Sharma lives and works in Mumbai and his paintings are large-scale works on paper, bold tones of watercolours that inhabit precise pen-and-ink outlines. Kolkata-based Roy’s “graphic equations" are rendered in paint on canvas, combining iconic images into puzzles which conflate signs, representations and implied meanings.
10am-6pm, Sunday closed. Nature Morte, A-1, Neeti Bagh (41740215).
10am-6pm, Sunday closed. Nature Morte, A-1, Neeti Bagh (41740215).
Music
Fusion
23 July
Asima is a Thiruvananthapuram-based male vocal and percussion ensemble. The group takes inspiration from the diversity and wealth of India’s rich musical heritage, which includes Vedic chanting, Hindustani and Carnatic classical music and Indian folk music. The Asima ensemble comprises five singers—Anil Ram, Gokul Bhaskar, Sreekumar, Khalid and Anoop Sivanand—and percussionists Tao Issaro and Sajith Papan and Yakzan on keyboards.
7.30pm. ML Bhartia Auditorium Alliance Française de Delhi, 72, Max Mueller Marg, Lodhi Estate (43500200).
String Duality
24 July
This is a new project featuring Suhail Yusuf Khan (Advaita) on sarangi and vocals, Peter Eisenhauer (Groove Wallah, Nashville Freight) on violin and guitar, and bassist Abhishek Mangla. The group’s original compositions and jams combine elements of jazz, rock and world music.
8pm. The Living Room Café, 31, Hauz Khas Village (46080533).
Theatre
Dulari Bai
24-25 July
Scripted by Sahitya Akademi award-winner Mani Madhukar and performed by a cast of streetchildren, this musical comedy revolves around Dulari Bai, a lady who has gained a reputation as the stingiest person around. She lives up to this reputation, even refusing to give up a 100-year-old pair of shoes.
7.30pm. Akshara Theatre, Baba Kharak Singh Marg (23364326). Tickets, Rs100-300, available at the venue.
Ghalib
25 July
Mirza Ghalib’s 19th century clothes, tehzeeb and persona are seen once egain in M. Sayeed Alam’s play Ghalib. It’s a solemn theatrical biography, with Ghalib’s life unfolding through a series of short and not-so-short flashbacks.
The play is, expectedly, Urdu-heavy and starts with Tom Alter, who is pitch-perfect as a decrepit and hoary Ghalib, speaking to his biographer and close associate, Altaf Hussain Hali, and other people who visit him—among them, Munshi Hargopal, a friend and admirer. As Ghalib talks, we revisit his well-documented dependence on the bottle, his gambling problem and his affair with a courtesan who admired his poetry. But Alam handles these matters subtly, not overly sensationalizing them.
7.30pm. Shri Ram Centre for Performing Arts, 4, Safdar Hashmi Marg (23714307). Tickets, Rs100-500, available at the venue. For telebooking, call 9810255291/9810460366 or mail pierrotstroupe@yahoo.com
MUMBAI
Dance
A Tribute to Biru
24 July
In December, one of India’s most talented Kathak dancers, Bireshwar Gautam, was strangled to death. Newspapers and channels reported that his alleged killer Khushi Agnihotri, an actor and choreographer, claimed he had been molested by the 47-year-old choreographer and teacher. Seven months after Gautam’s death, his friends and students are still bitter about the media’s insinuations, which marred the reputation of this dancer. Nine of his closest friends will celebrate Gautam’s contribution to dance and music with a show called A Tribute to Biru. The concert is being organized in association with Udayan.
6.45pm. Mini Theatre, PL Deshpande Maharashtra Kala Academy, Sayani Road, near Siddhivinayak Mandir, Prabhadevi (24312956). Donor passes, Rs100, available at the venue.
Art
Reverie
Till 31 July
This is an exhibition of upcoming artists. Among the exhibits is a cow skull dangling from the ceiling, part of Nekshan Dabu’s Spectacular Afterlife of Gulabi. The Red Requiem contains a red bicycle wheel jutting out of a red canvas. Dabu’s works play with reflected surfaces and found objects, in addition to using magnifying glasses to explore distortion, reflection and perception. Rakhi Peswani’s Seductive Myths of Lightness resembles a childlike bedtime tent with shadows floating inside it. Shruti Mahajan’s autobiographical works examine life in the army. Rupali Angre’s dreamy works use repetitive patterns to dwell on form. The exhibition also includes Shubhalakshmi Shukla’s video work and black and white drawings.
11am-7pm. Chemould Prescott Road, Queens Mansion, Third floor, G Talwatkar Marg, Fort (22000212).
Film
Breathless
29 July
As part of the multimedia Cinema City project, Majlis, Max Mueller Bhavan, Shreemati Nathibai Damodar Thackersey Women’s University and the Alliance Française de Bombay are organizing a special screening of Jean-Luc Godard’s masterpiece, Breathless, to celebrate the film’s 50th anniversary. Although the screening will be of an old print from the National Film Archive of India, the experience promises to be special because of the venue. Edward Theatre in Dhobi Talao dates back to the mid-1800s. It has a stage, an orchestra pit, wings and balconies as well as changing rooms, all reminders of its life as a venue for stage dramas.
6.30pm. Edward Talkies, Kalbadevi Road, near Furtado’s, Dhobi Talao (22012109). Tickets, Rs30, but free entry for Alliance Française members.
BANGALORE
Around town
Undoing History
23 July
Eminent curator and art critic Roger M. Buergel will conduct the inaugural talk of the CoLab-Goethe Lecture Series on practices in contemporary art. Co-hosted by the group CoLab, the series will host monthly presentations by artists, curators and art historians. The series grew out of an ongoing programme titled Re-presenting Histories, of exhibitions and events curated by Suman Gopinath and Grant Watson, along with Cultural Spaces, an initiative of the Goethe Institutes in India for developing spaces for knowledge- and experiment-based exchanges.
6.30pm. Venkatappa Art Gallery, Kasturba Road (22864483).
Music
Drum circle with Abhishek Basu
25 July
A drum circle is a free-for-all community session for percussionists—aspiring, amateur and accomplished. Basu will lead the drum circle, followed by a concert featuring his world music band Impromptu Symphonic Mind. The band features Indrajit Dey on keys and vocals, Joy Bhattacharya on drums, Sankha Subhra Ghosh on bass, Aditya on guitars, and Iman Das on vocals, apart from Basu on tabla, pakhawaj and a host of other percussion instruments.
7.30 pm. Kyra, 2001, Katti-Ma Centre, 100 Feet Road, Indiranagar (9632203333). Entry charges, Rs300.
Dance
Bharatanatyam-Kuchipudi jugalbandi
25 July
Bharatanatyam dancer Anuradha Vikrant and Kuchipudi dancer Shama Sanjay will present Nrityamilana, a performance combining the two styles. This event is part of Ananya GML Cultural Academy’s event Kalothsava, which will feature music and dance presentations.
7pm. Seva Sadan, 14th Cross, West Park Road, opposite MLA College, Malleswaram (23347830).
Theatre
The Tale of Haruk
27 July
Drawn from a traditional Korean story that has been passed down orally through several generations, The Tale of Haruk (written and directed by Bae Yo Sup) tells of an old couple who were the world’s only inhabitants. With only each other for company, they were struck by crushing loneliness and prayed for a child. The Spirit of the Tree heard them and gave them a boy child named Haruk, but forbade them from ever feeding him cooked rice. All was well for the happy trio, with the boy growing fast under their loving watch. But one day he begged to try the one thing that had been kept from him.
7.30pm. Ranga Shankara, JP Nagar (26592777). Tickets, Rs200.
KOLKATA
Around town
Cantonese Food
Till 1 August
Celebrate authentic Cantonese food at Hyatt, as a team of expert chefs from grand Hyatt Beijing stir up your dining experience. Artfully prepared Cantonese specialities such as roast duck with plum sauce, five-spiced lamb chops with fragrant salt, steamed baby lobster with garlic and fragrant oil, chilled sago with pomelo are some of the items on the menu.
Noon-3pm and 7-11pm. Hyatt Regency, Ja-1, Sector III, Salt Lake City (9831962778). Charges, Rs1,400, or Rs1,700, with a glass of wine, per person (plus taxes).
Film
Russia/France Festival of Films
26-31 July
Alliance Française du Bengale and the Russian Centre of Science and Culture in Kolkata, in association with Eisenstein Cine Club, present the Russia/France Festival of Films in commemoration of 2010—Year of Russia in France and France in Russia. The films to be screened include Strayed by André Téchiné (France), The Wedding by P. Lungin (Russia), Burnt by the Sun by N. Mikhalkov (Russia), Hiroshima mon Amour by A. Resnais (France), Normandie-Niemen by J. Dreville (Russia) and Vipere au Poing by Philippe de Broca (France).
6pm. Gorky Sadan, 3, Gorky Terrace (22475407). For details, call 22815198.
The Story of India
28 July
Calcutta Walks, a Kolkata-based, special-interest tour operator, presents an exclusive screening of BBC’s The Story of India— Michael Wood. The documentary film shows Michael Wood’s journey through the Indian subcontinent as he traces its peoples, cultures and landscapes.
6.30pm. The Weavers’ Studio Centre for the Arts, 94, Ballygunge Place (24613145).
Theatre
Gnan Briksher Fall
23 July
This Sayak production is based on Leo Tolstoy’s Fruits of Culture, but is set in the early 20th century Bengal. Decadent babu culture, feudal vagaries and luxuries, and flamboyant remnants of the “Young Bengal" movement form the backdrop of the play. Directed by Meghnad Bhattacharya, the script is by Chandan Sen.
6.30pm, Academy of Fine Arts, 2, Cathedral Road. Tickets, Rs20, Rs30, Rs40 and Rs60. For details, call 9830503108
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By Indranil Bhoumik
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