Kolkata Literary Meet (Kalam) – the city’s annual date with books and ideas, is back in its tenth edition. Browse through the schedule below, bookmark the dates and look forward to a stimulating literary week.
Event Schedule
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11:15 am
Inauguration
by Joanne Harris and Mani Sankar Mukherjee
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The Absent Dialogue
Anit Mukherjee and Krishnan Srinivasan on the armed forces and government. In conversation with Manoj Mohanka
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India's Lost Frontier
Raghvendra Singh in conversation with Priyadarshinee Guha, on t the history of North West Frontier Province
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Royal Stag Barrel Select Large Short Films Matinee
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When The Lions Write-Colony in Indian Ink
Shashi Tharoor and Sudeep Chakravarti in conversation with Manu Pillai
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She and her City
Damyanti Biswas, Rituparna Roy and Rajorshi Chakraborti
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Murder Well Done
Ann Cleeves on her recipe for creating a super sleuth. In conversation with Neha Hiranandani
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Poetry Afternoon
Srijato, Anuj Lugun and Niranjan Iyengar present their poems
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Sarojini's Mother
Kunal Basu introduces his new novel, and discusses the joy of writing in two languages. In conversation with Jash Sen. Launch of Sarojini’s Mother and Endgame
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JBS Haldane-A Dominant Character
Samanth Subramanian in conversation with Sabyasachi Bhattacharya. Launch of A Dominant Character by Bibek Debroy
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Aami Aar Amaar Shohor
Barun Chanda and Biswajit Ray in conversation
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Neeti, Aneeti o Durneeti
Bibek Debroy and Nrisingha Prasad Bhaduri on reading and interpreting the Mahabharata. In conversation with Madhuja Banerjee (Bangla Session)
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Dark Side of the Mind
Sharmishtha Gooptu, Kanchana Banerjee and Sabarna Roy on how thrillers delve into the darker side. In conversation with Sukanya Das
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2020 Vision: Reading and writing India
Amitav Ghosh in conversation with Manu Pillai
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Awakening Bharat Mata
Swapan Dasgupta in conversation with Kunal Sarkar
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7:15 pm
AFTERWORDS
PratyashaA play by Kheyali Dastidar featuring Sabyasachi Chakraborty, Bratati Bandyopadhyay, Anusha Viswanathan, Rahul Dev Bose, Don Ray, Kaushiki Guha and Kheyali Dastidar
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Inauguration
Inauguration by Javed Akhtar
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Shaayri, Kobita
Javed Akhtar’s poetry, Srijato’s translations. Readings and conversation with Sangeeta Datta. Launch of Bangla translation of Javed Akhtar’s anthology
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Cooking to Save Your Life
Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee and Cheyenne Olivier discuss their illustrated cookbook with Anuvab Pal
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A Rude Life
Vir Sanghvi discusses his memoirs with Sandip Roy
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Deadliner Daak
Chandril Bhattacharya, Srijato and Anupam Roy discuss the challenges of writing columns and recording vlogs. On Time. In conversation with Agnijit Sen (Bangla Session)
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2.30 pm
Amaar Rai
Samik Bandyopadhyay on his personal reading of Satyajit Ray. In conversation with Aparajita Dasgupta (Bangla Session)
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3.20 pm
An UnCommon Man
EP Unny and Rahul DaCunha* discuss RK Laxman’s legacy on his centenary. In conversation with Balaji Vittal (Rahul DaCunha will join online)
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4.20 pm
The Write Recipe
Vir Sanghvi, Ritu Dalmiya* and Mita Kapur on the joys of writing and reading food. In conversation with Monideepa Banerjie (Ritu Dalmiya will join online)
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5.10 pm
Kitney Aadmi The
Javed Akhtar and Balaji Vittal discuss Vittal’s Pure Evil and the bad men of Hindi cinema. In conversation with RJ Arvind
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6 pm
Imagining Race Course Road
Seema Goswami discusses her thriller series. In conversation with Malavika Banerjee
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6.50 pm
Usha-The Queen of Indian Pop
Usha Uthup speaks about her musical journey with biographer Vikas Jha and Srishti Jha. In conversation with Shantanu Datta
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7.30 pm
Khela Hochchey
Stand-up comedy by Cyrus Broacha and Anuvab Pal
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Har Ek Pal Ka Shayar
Javed Akhtar on the relevance of Sahir Ludhianvi’s poetry in his centenary year. In conversation with Mudar Patherya
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Hanste Tader Mana
Anuvab Pal and Cyrus Broacha on laughter and humour as a survival kit in pandemic times. In conversation with Sandip Roy
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Remo Unplugged
Remo Fernandes in conversation with Arka Das
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Waqt
Javed Akhtar presents an interpretation of his acclaimed poem by Sangeeta Datta
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Dongri Dons to Mafia Queens
S. Hussain Zaidi discusses his work and fascination with the murky side of Mumbai. In conversation with Labonita Ghosh
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Rocket Boys-Real and Reel Stories
Mallika Sarabhai and Jim Sarbh in conversation with Shrayana Bhattacharya
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Raag Desh
Classical music performance by Ustad Rashid Khan, poetry by Srijato
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Large Short Films Matinee
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Publishing, Translations and Festivals
Arunava Sinha, Gourahari Das and Debanjan Chakrabarti in conversation with Padmini Ray Murray
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Aw Kinchit
Anindya Chattopadhyay in conversation with Prithwi Bose and Rwitobroto Mukherjee (Bangla Session)
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Has The Web Series Kidnapped The Thriller?
Krishnan Srinivasan and Anuvab Pal in conversation with Pratiti Ganatra
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Soumitra Smriti
Madhabi Mukherjee, Poulomi Bose, Suman Mukhopadhyay and discuss the theatre, cinema and other roles of Soumitra Chatterjee. In conversation with Sanchari Mookherjee (Bangla Session)
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The East Bengal Century
Gautam Roy discusses the football and the history of the maidan titan. In conversation with Debanjan Chakrabarti
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A Death in Sonagachchi
Rijula Das in conversation with Supriya Newar
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Names of the women
Jeet Thayil in conversation with Sandip Roy
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Sketches from France
Nicolas Wild, Cheyenne Olivier discuss the illustrated narrative and cartoon culture in Paris. In conversation with Pinaki De
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Girish Karnad’s This Life At Play
Raghu Karnad, Mohan Agashe and Arshia Sattar* on the plays, the films, the writings, the man. In conversation with Debnita Chakravarti (Arshia Sattar will join online)
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The Beatles And India
Ajoy Bose on his documentary on the Fab Four’s tryst with India. In conversation with Gautam Bhimani
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Victoria Memorial Shatabdi
Jayanta Sengupta, Bachi Karkaria, Anindya Chattopadhyay and Agnijit Sen discuss Kolkata’s romance with the memorial across generations. In conversation with Poorna Banerjee
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Mallika-e-Bharatnatyam
Bharatnatyam performance by Mallika Sarabhai
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Watershed
Mridula Ramesh and Bikram Grewal on India’s water crisis. In conversation with Labonita Ghosh
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Early Indians
Tony Joseph on the migrations that made India. In conversation with Sujaan Mukherjee
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Mahanagarer Nayak
Dhritiman Chatterjee, Barun Chanda* and Pradeep Mukherjee on debuting as protagonists in Ray’s City Trilogy. In conversation with Riddhi Sen (Barun Chanda will join online) (Bangla Session)
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The Spirits of India
Ruskin Bond* and Rakesh Khanna discuss ghosts, spirits and monsters. In conversation with Sandip Roy (Mr Bond will join online)
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Bengal Cinema and the National Gaze
Sayandeb Chowdhury, Amitava Nag discuss their biographies of Uttam Kumar and Tapan Sinha. In conversation with Sangeeta Datta
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The Shiva Trilogy – A Decade Later
Amish looks back at his trailblazing start in writing. In conversation with Sidharth Pansari
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The Raja Who Painted Maharajas
Manu Pillai on the princes of India through the works of Ravi Verma. In conversation with Priyadarshinee Guha
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Priyo Diary
Nilanjan Bandyopadhyay, Arunava Sinha and Khan Ruhul Rubel* on being chroniclers of a place. In conversation with Madhuja Banerjee (Khan Ruhul Rubel will join online) (Bangla Session)
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Bhasha Artha Satya
Sukanta Chaudhuri discusses his new book with Semanti Ghosh (Bangla Session)
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Rediscovering the Wilderness
Bikram Grewal and Bittu Sehgal* on whether the pandemic has changed the way Indians look at nature. In conversation with Sumit Sen (Bittu Sehgal will join online)
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In An Ideal World
Kunal Basu discusses his new book with Raghu Karnad and Malavika Banerjee
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It Is Far More Than A Game, This Cricket
Pradeep Magazine discusses how cricket and India have changed and remained the same over the decades. In conversation with Rahul Bhattacharya
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6 pm
Kalam Bioscope-The Beatles And India
Premiere of Ajoy Bose’s Documentary
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Italian Brahmins to Firpos
Manu Pillai, Isabelle Nardi and Gianluca Rubagotti on Italian footprints across India. In conversation with Sujaan Mukherjee
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Mancha-Chitrer Brittanto
Suman Mukhopadhyay, Kaushik Sen, Anirban Bhattacharya and Aveek Majumder. Launch of Suman Mukhopadhyay’s book (Bangla Session)
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Ray’s Way
Mohan Agashe and Samik Bandyopadhyay on the sketches, the preparation and the methods behind Ray’s films . In conversation with Agnijit Sen
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HMT
Hollis Coats, Sandeep Madhavan and Jeet Thayil in performance
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8 pm
Samayer Smritimala
Screening of Goutam Ghose’s short film on the pandemic followed by a discussion with the director and Suman Mukhopadhyay (Bangla Session)
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Get Well Soon
Ratnaboli Ray and Kunal Sarkar discuss mental and physical health challenges during and beyond the pandemic. In conversation with Janet Gasper Chowdhury
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Desperately Seeking Shah Rukh
Shrayana Bhattacharya in conversation with Paroma Roy Chowdhury
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Amish At Large
Amish Tripathi on writing, the pandemic and seeing India from outside and within. In conversation with Janet Gasper Chowdhury
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Large Short Films Matinee
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Tennis Laboratory
Gautam Bhattacharya discusses his new book on the aces of tennis. In conversation with Chinmoy Guha (Bangla Session)
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Born A Muslim
Ghazala Wahab discusses her award-winning book with Jashodhara Chakraborti
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Labannakto
Anita Agnihotri in conversation with Aparajita Dasgupta (Bangla Session)
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Kabul, Kyiv and Us
Nicolas Wild and Krishnan Srinivasan on the world’s warzones and our differing perceptions. In conversation with Paroma Roy Chowdhury
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Dante’s Divine Comedy-A 700-Year Journey
Sukanta Chaudhuri and Doyeeta Majumdar discuss the impact of one of the world’s greatest literary works on its 700th anniversary. In conversation with Samantak Das. Introduction by Gianluca Rubagotti
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Culture Club
Bachi Karkaria, Chandrahas Choudhury and Sandip Roy discuss writing about books, culture and owning one’s opinion in polarised times. In conversation with Debanjan Chakrabarti
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Ray Writes
Samantak Das and Pinaki De discuss Ray’s writing gene. Readings of recently published stories by Ray by Dhritiman Chaterji bookend the discussion
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Nair’s Leela
Bachi Karkaria on the life, the times and the hotels of Capt. Nair. Nair In conversation with Malavika Banerjee
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Abanindranath@150
R. Siva Kumar and Jayanta Sengupta discuss the artist’s legacy and the collection of his works at Victoria Memorial. In conversation with Sujaan Mukherjee
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Two Maestros
Simi Grewal discusses her work in Satyajit Ray’s and Mrinal Sen’s films. In conversation with Jayabrato Chatterjee
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Kalam 2022 Finale
Classical sitar recital by Ustad Shujaat Khan
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