The Navjeet Community Centre of the Holy Family Hospital, Bandra, Mumbai, recently organized their annual fund raising musical extravaganza at St Andrews Auditorium early this week.

A show that is eagerly awaited every year saw the young and old in attendance coming from places like the extended suburbs of Mumbai – Virar to North Mumbai - Colaba. When it comes to organizing a grand musical show, there can only be one person who can give you nothing but the best…………. The very talented singer and event producer Felix Flor.

The evening started off with an audio visual highlighting the work done by Navjeet Community Centre narrated by Rosamond Flor.

To keep the audiences in a spirited mood throughout the evening was none other than the very talented Quick Gun Murugan, Shahriyar Atai, who with his cowboy hat and silver gun had each and every one in splits laughter with his non-toxin jokes which blended very well while introducing each of the musical acts on stage. He even went on to spot a look alike from the audience saying “Look who’s here with us today its Colonel Sanders from the famous Kentucky Fried Chicken”.

The highlight of the evening came alive with talented musicians and doctors from Holy Family Hospital taking you on a nostalgic journey of songs bringing back memories, not forgetting a tune that one could sing along to.

Doctor’s from the visiting OPD took time off from their busy schedules, and made it an evening to showcase their musical talents on stage. We had Dr. Nikhil Cunhaon on keyboards along with other musicians.

The Duggall sister duo of Riya and Simran performed Wings.

The best performance of the evening came post the interval when the Victory Chorus Line, Mahim conducted by the talented Karen D’lima Vaswani, got down to performing a melody of Konkani songs that had the audiences asking for an encore. One couldn’t miss out the opening track ABBA’s anthem Dancing Queen.

Brother - Sister duo Khashiff and Mirajkar singing a duet together Lucky was spellbinding.

Following in the footsteps of her talented parents Frederica Flor performed Dance Apocalyptic’ requesting the audience to sing and clap along.

We then had crooner Niyati Melody Mirajkar performing Stevie Wonder’s classic Overjoyed accompanied by musician Shirish Malhotra on guitar.

From the musical Grease currently playing in Mumbai, we had the lead act Sandy aka Tara Sutaria singing the Wizard of Oz classic Somewhere Over the Rainbow. Her powerful voice almost shook the auditorium’s speakers off their hook.

One the many performers was Ben Fernandes, from Auckland, NZ playing keyboardswho was visiting India after 10 years; An old friend of Felix, Ben just could not miss out this opportunity to perform at this event along with James Miranda on trumpet playing Georgia On My Mind.

Ella Ataiwho can never be forgotten with her rendition of two Biblical songs from the Jewish era. With Ben taking on Besame Mucho on piano, Ella came in as a surprise act with her rendition of Exodus and the popular Hebrew song played at Jewish weddings Havana, had the audiences clapping and tapping their feet.

The Chief Guest for the evening was none other than Janet D’souza, Vice-President of Maharashtra State Minority Commission who addressed the gathering and praised the Navjeet Community Centre for their outstanding contribution done for the empowerment of women and their families. She also offered her help to the Community for any assistance that they might require from the Government of Maharashtra in the near future.

Coming together for the finale were all the performers for the evening, singing along with Felix Flor on his take of We’ll Meet Again.

It was indeed an enjoyable musical night to remember by one and all present. The main sponsor for the show was Earnest John Group of Companies.

- By David Vaz