Weekend events you can’t miss in Kolkata (Feb 13-15)

Kolkata Valentine’s guide: T20 World Cup clash, Tagore & Gauhar Jaan performances, poetry, couples’ pottery, and Indian Museum showcase

Pitch perfect: The T20 World Cup

My Name is Jaan, which premiered in June 2021, is performed by Arpita Chatterjee and directed by Abanti Chakraborty

What: Catch it live as England and Scotland face off in the ICC T20 World Cup, with Kolkata among the venues as the tournament unfolds across India and Sri Lanka. England arrive as one of the format’s defining white-ball sides, their recent history marked by tactical depth and power-hitting. Scotland continues its rise, joining other nations eager to make a mark in the format.

The world will be watching. Momentum can shift in an instant. Witness an established force and a determined challenger share the world stage.

When: February 14 (Saturday), 3 pm

Where: Eden Gardens

Entry: Prices start at ₹100

Tagore in Love

What: Prem er Joyare brings together a distinguished ensemble to explore love through Rabindranath Tagore’s words and music this Valentine’s Day. The programme features artists including Pramita Mallik, Lopamudra Mitra, Srabani Sen, Bratati Bandyopadhyay, Manomoy Bhattacharyya, Surajit Chattopadhyay, Agnibha Bandyopadhyay, Subrata Sengupta, Sumantra Sengupta, alongside Saptaswara.

Songs and recitations unfold in gentle conversation, tracing Tagore’s many registers of love — longing, devotion, separation, and union — through a blend of voice, verse, and silence. Rabindra Sangeet flows into spoken poetry with reflective intimacy, shaped by careful musical arrangements and measured cadence. Attend for the performance, but stay for the atmosphere of a shared listening space where melody and language meet.

When: February 14 (Saturday), 5.30 pm

Where: Madhusudan Mancha

Entry: Prices start at ₹200

A dialogue of hearts

What: Embark on a musical journey with Ami Se O Sokha, featuring poet Srijato Bandopadhyay, classical and Rabindra Sangeet vocalist Jayati Chakraborty, and narration by Raja, in a programme shaped by poetry and spoken word.

Bandopadhyay’s verse explores love, memory, and inward reflection, while Chakraborty’s voice adds depth to the emotional landscape. Raja anchors the performance, guiding the transitions between song and recitation to create a continuous narrative of companionship. The performance traces tenderness, longing, and shared silence, allowing words and music to unfold with restraint and intimacy.

When: February 14 (Saturday), 6 pm

Where: Behala Sarat Sadan

Entry: Prices start at ₹300

Clay and companionship

What: A hand pottery workshop for couples offers a tactile, shared creative experience centred on clay, touch, and quiet collaboration. The guided session invites participants to mould, shape, and form pottery together, focusing on the process rather than perfection. All materials are provided by the organisers, allowing participants to create something by hand that can serve as a lasting memento of Valentine’s Day. As the clay responds to their hands, conversation softens into concentration, and the act of creation becomes a quiet dialogue between two people.

When: February 15 (Sunday), 12 pm

Where: Rehearse

Entry: Prices start at ₹499

Gauhar Jaan lives on

What: A solo musical play based on the life of Gauhar Jaan, one of India’s earliest recording stars and a defining voice of the gramophone era, returns to the stage. My Name is Jaan, which premiered in June 2021, is performed by Arpita Chatterjee and directed by Abanti Chakraborty. The play traces Gauhar’s artistic rise, musical innovation, and complex personal journey through song, narration, and movement.

Jaan, remembered for adapting classical music to early recording constraints and popularising the three-minute song form, emerges as both an artist and an icon. The production is notable for how it compresses a vast life into a single-voice narrative while situating that life within a transforming musical era, where technology, performance, and persona converged to shape modern Indian sound.

When: February 15 (Sunday) , 6.30 pm

Where: GD Birla Sabhaghar

Entry: Prices start at ₹299

An exhibition that flows through history

What: To mark the Indian Museum’s 212th foundation year, the exhibition Beyond the Land: Markers of India’s Riverine and Maritime Heritage traces the subcontinent’s civilisational journey through its vast river and maritime networks. Drawing extensively from the museum’s reserve collection, the exhibition places rarely seen artefacts on display.

Through objects, maps, and visual narratives, it shows how waterways shaped settlement, agriculture, trade, and cultural exchange over centuries, from early riverine communities to maritime links with West Asia, Africa, and Southeast Asia. Highlights include Harappan maritime infrastructure, including the port of Lothal, alongside traded materials such as beads, seals, and textiles. Together, the displays frame water not as a backdrop but as a conduit — a force of movement, connection, and continuity across India’s long historical imagination.

When: Until February 28

Where: Indian Museum

Entry: Prices start at ₹20