Master Magician K Lal Passes Away

Ahmedabad (Gujarat): World renowned Gujarati Magician the great Kantilal Vora, Popularly known as K Lal, breathes his last breath on Sunday, September 23^rd morning at his Riverview apartment residence off Ashram Road. He was 88 and is survived by his wife Pushpa, a son and two daughters. Hundreds of fellow magicians from all over the world made the last homage to the legend.

He was suffering from cancer and was under medication, said his son Harshad Vora, a popular magician himself, who follows his father as Junior K Lal.

Senior Lal was born at Bagasra in Amreli district in 1924. When he turned seven his family shifted to Kolkata with his grandfather to trade in saris.

He used to travel with his grandfather and as there were few modes of transport, he would reach his business house on foot. He would often see magicians performing tricks on the streets. Though young, Kantilal was intelligent enough to see through the tricks of these magicians. He started developing an interest in the field of magic and in due course his interest turned into a passion. He started learning magic tricks from Ganpat Chakravarti and Kumar Babu in Kolkata. His family initially opposed to this. However, later they accepted his profession and started supporting him.

After training for about six years, Kantilal gave his first stage performance in 1940 in Kolkata which lasted for an hour and a half. He continued adding more attractions to his tricks. In 1950, he held a three-hour show in Roxy Cinema Hall near Dharmatala in Kolkata and for three hours not a single member of the audience moved, said Junior Lal.

He gave thousands of shows across the countries. He went to Japan 18 times to perform there. Once he went to South Africa to perform and stayed there for eight months at a stretch following the popularity of his shows, recalled his son. 

K Lal is considered a legend in the world of magic and loved by one and all as he helped anyone who came to him.  He devised scores of tricks being used by the current crop of magicians.

He had taken a short break from stage shows and returned about three years ago with a new set of tricks spreading social messages, like the dangers of smoking and drinking.

Among his favorite tricks was the one in which he used to create the image of Mahatma Gandhi to tell the audience about the harmful effects of Gutkha and Alcohol.

“My father wanted to create a platform for the upcoming magicians from Gujarat for which he wanted to set up an academy.   A proposal for the same was sent to government for which we are yet to get a response.  We will give concrete shape to his dream” said Junior Lal.