Currently in pical the beginning date time is displayed as 10th May 2009 Sunday and finishing date time is displayed as 10th May 2009 Sunday.

I wish to display the date as 10-05-2009 and not 10th may 2009

The function to display the beginning date time is <{$event.start_date_desc}>
and to display the finishing date time is <{$event.end_date_desc}>

I want to know the fuction to display the date in the above said format or any other format which is a bit shorter then the default one.

Thank in advance.

You can modify the template to use whatever date format you would like - http://www.smarty.net/manual/en/language.modifier.date.format.php

<{$event.start_date_desc|date_format:"%d-%m-%Y"}>

would display as you described (10-05-2009)