By Mir Mohsin Ali

RIYADH — The Indian Tamil Fine Arts Association (ITFAA) organized a mega musical event titled “Magic of Music” held at Istraha Saliyah here.

The event featured famous Bollywood and Kollywood playback singer Mohammed Aslam, who had sung many songs for Oscar award winning music director A.R. Rahman while also performing globally with Rahman’s orchestra.

And the evening also was embellished with the presence of musical legend Dr. Josyula Shekhar from Chennai, India. He is well known for his musical concerts combined with a cause and a concept.

The president of ITFAA Vetrivel and his wife Indira Vetrivel were instrumental in hosting such a memorable evening for the Indian community living in Riyadh.

The program also showcased the local talents of the young dancers from the Indian community, who enthralled the audience with their performances

Enthralling vocal performances were given by smart and young male and female singers from the community. The entire evening was spearheaded by the young and talented couple Sivaraman and Rani as program directors.

The event was attended by Mariappan, Air India eegional manager, and Srinivasan, head of Larsen and Toubro Constructions, part of the consortium executing the Riyadh Metro Project.

More than 400 people from the Indian community attended the event. It was nothing short of a spectacle and the audience was indeed awash in an ocean of music.

Music maestros Aslam and Shekhar along with the young singers and dancers enthralled everyone with their lively performances. While the old songs, which were definitely nostalgic, the new ones rally made the audience tap their feet to the tune and rhythm.

Beginning with an invocation dance, the event was followed by rocking dance performances and beautiful renditions of evergreen and chartbusting Tamil and Hindi movie songs.

Speaking about the event, Vetrivel, president of ITFAA, highlighted the role of ITFAA in promoting Indian and Tamil culture and traditions through a variety of cultural and community outreach programs.

The group is following in the path of ex-president Jayaseelan, who was well known to the Indian community through his yeoman services.

He appreciated the efforts of the executive committee members of ITFAA especially Event Chair Sivaraman and Rani Sivaraman, Creative Head Indira Vetrivel, Creative designer Prashanth Vetrivel, Event Coordinators, Siva Ramalingam, Velumani, Arun Sharma, Masters of Ceremony Dr. Sundar and Dr. Chalini Sundar, Logistic support team Saravanan, Aravind and Kesav and the sound engineer Rajesh for helping to organize the event in a grand scale. He thanked all the sponsors for their unending support and contributions for success.