Entertainment
Kolkata
is famous for its
culture - film,
poetry, music, art and dance
all have their devotees here. Programmes are listed
in the daily newspapers or in the leaflet Kolkata This Fortnight, available
free from the tourist offices.
A dance-drama performance, Bengali poetry reading or a
similar event takes
place on most nights at the
Rabindra Sadan
on
Cathedral Rd. Foreign films and retrospectives are shown at the
Nandan
complex nearby, and many of the
cinemas in Chowringhee show recent release US
movies. There are often drama performances in English at the Kala Mandir, 48
Shakespeare Sarani, and musical
programmes at the
Sisir Mancha,
1/1 AJC Bose Rd.
Bars & Discos
In the Sudder St area, the
Sun Set Bar
at
the Lytton Hotel is a good place for a drink. This bar is popular with
travellers, young expatriate workers and local young people involved on the
fringes of the tourist trade. It's a friendly place and they have a good music
system. Similar is the open-air bar in the forecount of the
Fairlawn
Hotel where there's always an interesting crowd.
There are plenty of other, much more basic, bars, some with
bizarre names like Off cum On
Rambo Bar
on Mirza Ghalib St, and
Olypub,
a pretty seedy restaurant and bar on Park St near the Moulin Rouge.
Quite a few of the larger hotels have discos which go on
until early morning. The best of
them is probably the
Pink Elephant,
at
the Oberoi Grand Hotel, where you can get down Wednesday, Friday and Saturday
night and Sunday afternoon.
Thursday is a dry's day in Kolkata and the only places where
you can get alcoholic drinks are in the four and five-star hotels, although some
places seem to disregard this ruling. Several of the licensed restaurants are
closed on Thursday.
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