Diwali melas, Oktoberfest and an operatic Macbeth for a lively weekend

Here is a guide to what you can do this weekend if you are in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata or Bangalore

DELHI

Music and Dance

Melodies under the starry sky: Sahitya Kala Parishad presents the Festival of Young Musicians and Dancers. The festival promotes young talent across various styles of dance and music, including classical and folk styles. The weekend line-up includes recitals in Bharatnatyam, Kuchipudi, tabla, santoor and veena.

When: Till October 19, 6.30 pm onwards
Where: Central Park, Connaught Place, New Delhi

Theatre

An ode to tehzeeb: Urdu Academy presents 26th Urdu Drama Festival 2014, dedicated to Begum Qudsia Zaidi and Khwaja Ahmed Abbas. The festival will host Urdu plays like Khalid Ki Khala  and Dhoban Ko Kapde Diye, performed by different theatre groups.

When: Till October 18, 6.30 pm onwards
Where: Shri Ram Centre for Performing Arts, 4, Safdar Hashmi Marg, Mandi House, New Delhi
Entry by invitation only. Invitations cards are available at Urdu Academy, CPO Building, Kashmeri Gate, Delhi

  Satyajit Ray in the 16th Century: Dastan Goopi Bagha Ki captures the essence of the story of two of the most popular Satyajit Ray characters - Goopi, the singer and Bagha, the drummer. Their transformation from being simple village bumpkins to musicians who hold their audience spellbound is the crux of the story. But the story is told through 16th century storytelling tradition of Dastangoi.

When: October 18, 7.30 pm to 8.30 pm
Where: India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road, New Delhi
Tickets are available at www.bookmyshow.com

Art

In retrospect: The National Gallery of Modern Art presents a retrospective of artwork by Balkrishna Doshi. Titled "Celebrating Habitat : The Real, The Virtual & The Imaginary", the exhibition has been curated by Khushnu Panthaki Hoof. It maps six decades of the Doshi's contribution to the field of art and showcases a selection of a series of spatial constructions in large and small spaces in diverse modes of visual expressions.

When: Till October 30, 10 am to 5 pm
Where: National Gallery of Modern Art, Jaipur House, India Gate, New Delhi

Shopping

A date with Diwali: The slightly nippy air is ushering winter in Delhi, and with it, the sparkling festive season. With the weather just-right to be out shopping, Delhi will play host to several Diwali melas in town. Buy diyas, candles, decorative pieces and gifts for your loved ones. Pamper yourself with some bespoke jewellery, bags and, of course, hand made chocolates. While the Blind School Mela is the most popular, there are many others that come a close second to it.

Blind School Diwali Mela
When: Till October 20, 10.30 am to 8 pm
Where: Blind Relief Association, Near Lodhi Estate, Lodhi Road, New Delhi

Sunder Nagar Diwali Mela
When: October 18 and 19, 4 pm to 11 pm
Where: Sunder Nagar Park, New Delhi Public School, New Delhi

Select Citywalk Diwali Mela
When: Till October 19, 12 pm to 11 pm
Where: Select Citywalk, Saket, New Delhi

Dastkar Festival of Lights
When: Till October 19, 11 am to 7 pm
Where: Nature Bazaar, Kisan Haat, Andheri Modh, New Delhi

BANGALORE

Music

Cheers to October: October means Oktoberfest in Bangalore (if you can't make it to Germany) and this year, being the tenth edition, has a whole host of acts. The beer and music festival kicks off with Apache Indian, the reggae-bhangra pop king of the '90s, and playback singer Benny Dayal with his band, Funktuation. Bevar Sea, Raghu Dixit, TAAQ and DJ Aqeel are among the long list of acts lined up for the next two days. Wind up the last day with Lucky Ali and Manganyar Seduction.

When: October 17 to 19
Where: Ezone Club, Marathahalli, Bangalore
Schedule and tickets available at http://www.kingfisherworld.com

Rockathon: A seven-hour rock festival featuring some of Bangalore's favourite bands, packed into one evening. Bands that will be performing at SlaM include Lagori, Clown with a Frown, Divine Raaga and D's Kitchen.

When: October 18, 4 pm onwards
Where: Counter Culture, Whitefield, Bangalore

Jazz, and a pinch of funk: Spend an evening of jazz with a dash of funk, as Chandbibi and the Waste Candidates take the stage. This will be followed by a DJ set by Unnaayanaa aka Prashaanth Pallemoni.
When: October 17, 9 pm onwards
Where: Bflat, 100 Feet Road, Indira Nagar, Bangalore

MUMBAI

Music

Success and the santoor: Santoor player Shivkumar Sharma will interact with audiences about his creative journey including his training, struggles, evolution and musical artistry. The maestro will share ideas and ideologies behind his success. The eminent sitar exponent Arvind Parikh will be interviewing him.  Admission is free for all on a first come first served basis, with preferential seating for NCPA members.

When: October 19, 6.30 pm
Where: Experimental Theatre, NCPA, Nariman Point, Mumbai

Art

Lost-wax eloquent: An exhibition will showcase gadhwakam – an ancient art lost wax casting -- where the designs retain intricacies of form, line and modulation. A statue of a dancing girl excavated in Mohenjodaro dated around the third millennium BC, bearing intricate elegant carvings, shows that the process had already been perfected by then. The metal sculptors, called gadhwas, are made by the Batsar tribes living in Chattisgarh. They create jewellery, household items, as well as figurines of their own deities like Raodev, Dhanteshwaridevi, Mouladevi and Pardesin Matadevi. Elongated torsos and limbs are a unique feature of these sculptures. Today’s practitioners are said to have maintained the simplicity and expressiveness of the art form.

When: Till November 23
Where: Jamaat Art Gallery, Colaba, Mumbai

Theatre

Metropolitan Opera’s Macbeth: NCPA will present an opera screening of Macbeth - Verdi from The Metropolitan Opera, New York. Adrian Noble’s production stars Anna Netrebko who is said to move boldly into the play with her portrayal of Lady Macbeth, the mad and murderous mate of Željko Lucic’s doomed Macbeth. It also features Joseph Calleja as the noble Macduff and René Pape as Banquo. Fabio Luisi conducts.

When: October 20 and 21, 6 pm

Where: NCPA, Nariman Point, Mumbai

Tickets: Rs 750

Comedy

Comedy night: Seven performers will take to the microphone at the next Best in Stand-Up Comedy presentation at blueFROG. Anirban Dasgupta, Kamal Trilok Singh, Rahul Subramanian, Kunal Kamra, Aditya, Vikram Poddar and Nick Pillow are in the show. Dasgupta is an engineer-turned-salesman who is taking stabs at comedy, Poddar is a former investment banker while Pillow is a theatre teacher from the south of England.

When: October 21, 8.30 pm
Where: blueFROG, Lower Parel, Mumbai
Entry: Rs 500

History

Coloniser’s canvas: "The Doubled Frame: Interrogating Identity" is an exhibition that will showcase a few of the colonial artworks that document the country and had an Indian identity. Photographs and prints from the museum’s collection are on display. The thought behind the exhibition is to explore the manners in which colonial rulers viewed their subjects. The exhibition is curated by Tasneem Zakaria Mehta. “British administrators constructed an archaeology of dominance through visual narratives that ossified and redefined caste and custom and soon Indians learnt to interpret themselves through similar tropes,” notes the curator.

When: Till October 19
Where: Dr. Bhau Daji Lad museum, Byculla, Mumbai

Film

Doctors and spin doctors: Catch a screening of Being Bhaijaan, a documentary by Shabani Hassanwalia and Samreen Farooqui, which follows a Salman Khan lookalike who is celebrated as a star in Nagpur. The 77-minute film explores “Indian masculinity that is disassociated with a changing country, its competitiveness and its new woman.” Also to be screened is Augustine by Alice Winocour. The film looks at the relationship between 19th century French neurologist Jean Martin Charcot and his star patient, a kitchen maid who is left paralysed after a seizure.

When: October 17 and 20, 6.30 pm
Where: Alliance Francaise auditorium

KOLKATA

Art

Contemplative art: The Gateway Hotel will be hosting Crossings, an oil on canvas art exhibition by Sambhu Saha. A reflection of the artist’s contemplative side, Crossings will take the viewer on a journey of the Bengal countryside. Saha is one of the most talented young, contemporary Indian impressionist painters. His style of work rejects the use of colours in a grammatical manner - there is instead a focus on the general impression produced by a scene, and the use of unmixed primary colors and small strokes to simulate actual reflected light.
When: Till October 26
Where: The Gateway Hotel, EM Bypass, Kolkata

Film

French cinema: Alliance Francaise will be screening Americano, a 2011 French drama film written and directed by Mathieu Demy. Starring Geraldine Chaplin, Salma Hayek and Chiara Mastroianni, the film is a deeply moving drama about inheritance and legacy that deftly mines the past of a true-life filmmaking family, while at the same time weaving a fictional narrative about coming to terms with unattended grief and uncomfortable pasts.

When: October 22, 6 pm
Where: Alliance Francaise Du Bengale, AJC Bose Road, Kolkata