Tempe’s Galvin Play House, was brought to life on the evening of February the 21^st when Association for India's Development, (AID) Tempe chapter staged a gala musical event - "Sur Aur Taal". The occasion was an evening of foot tapping music and dance from Bollywood and South Indian Cinema as well as a fund raiser supporting two critical AID projects. The 3.5 hour long musical and artistic jamboree featured the very talented singers from Sur aur Taal, Mayuri Ray, Sudhakar Gopal, Sriram Subramanyan, Karthik Raju, Meghna Rajaram and Kumar Subramanian.

The venue was packed with over 350 pepped up music lovers. There were kids, students, young couples and elderly all bursting with energy and enthusiasm. The show opened with the emcees for the evening, Kriti Agarwal and Rupanjana Sengupta welcoming the crowd and thanking them for their support. Both the emcees come with vast experience on handling such shows with Rupanjana directing many Bengali plays and Kriti hosting several such events. The evening started with Mayuri singing a Vandana in honor of the almighty for the wonderful day and then later the emcees took over the show welcoming Sudhakar and Mayuri on the stage. They sang a duet from the famous Mani Ratnam movie Guru – “Ai Hairiathe Aashiqui”.

Mayuri has a gifted voice and is a known face in the valley for quite a long time. She has shared the stage with popular Bollywood singers – Abhijeet and Usha Uthup and has never failed to enthrall the audience with her euphonic voice. Sudhakar, a trained classical singer has been performing for over a decade now and teaches classical music to young children in the valley. Together they raised the tempo for the evening and when they finished, the crowd erupted in a loud uproar and liveliness. It was a perfect start for the evening.

Later Sriram, the most electrifying singer amongst the troupe thrilled the audience with his fantabulous performance on the Song – Guzarish from the recent Aamir Khan movie, Gajini. He has performed at many concerts in Phoenix and his singing style and charm appeals to a wide audience. This was followed by the young members of the group - Karthik and Meghna performing a duet song -“Mellaga Karagani” from the Telugu movie Varsham. With Karthik’s incredible rich voice and Meghna’s extremely melodious voice, their chemistry had the audience gasping for more.

The enthusiasm from the audience was fierce and the energy incredible as the dancers set the stage ablaze with their performances. Just as the audience was about to settle into the hip hop mood, came Kumar Subramanian who carried the audience back into the 60’s with his song- Ye Dil na Hota Bechara from the evergreen star Dev Anand’s movie Jewel Thief. Kumar’s yodeling brought back memories of the late Kishore Kumar, the most famous vocalist in Indian Cinema. The artists performed on a wide genre of songs from semi-classical Mere Dholna to the perky - Desi girl. As the evening progressed they entertained the crowd with a medley of Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Kannada, Malayalam and Punjabi songs. The night was concluded with the song Jai Ho from Slumdog Millionaire composed by the Oscar Winning Music Director A.R. Rahman.

            AID, the organization who hosted this fund raiser is a 501(k) registered, non-profit voluntary organization, funding projects and movements that envisions a developed India. These projects are targeted at addressing the various socio-economic problems in India and bringing out a healthy society. All proceeds from this artistic show will directly support two major projects undertaken by AID Tempe, Eureka child and Bihar Flood Relief. Eureka Child is an education program which is supporting children education in Tamil Nadu, a southern state of India.

The AID Tempe executive committee would like to thank all the sponsors for their generosity and support in these difficult economic times, the Sur Aur Taal team for wonderfully entertaining the crowd. Warm gratitude to azindia.com for online ticket sales and Asia Today for marketing the event and helping us to put a brilliant show. The committee would like to extend their appreciation to the volunteers and the audience for making this a great success.