വക്കം ഖാദര്‍ കേരളത്തിന്റെ ഭഗത് സിംഗ്

വക്കം ഖാദറിനെ പുതു തലമുറയ്ക്ക് പരിചയപ്പെടുത്തുവാന്‍ വേണ്ടിയുള്ള പ്രോഗ്രാം " വക്കം ഖാദര്‍ കേരളത്തിന്റെ ഭഗത് സിംഗ് " മജിഷ്യന്‍ ഹാരിസ് താഹ  അവതരിപ്പിക്കുന്നു 

Sajin Kadakkal goes wane surprisingly

Kallambalam: The young promising magic mate, Sajin Kadakkal (21) left the paths of wonder curtailed. An active participant of magicians’ refreshing programmes and a member of Magic Club have surprisingly dropped the news of his sad demise to men who loves him. 

The magician concurrently used to learn and teach in private institutions, besides his magic learning and staging. Vismayam Magical News and Magic Club express the deep condolences. Please visit http://magicweekly.blogspot.in/ to share your condolence.

‘Karishma’ finds Banerjee’s charisma

Porvorim, Goa : Magician J. P. Banerjee of Hooghly in West Bengal made a dazzling performance fetching a prize at the 4th all India magic convention titled, Karishma 2012 held here. 

10-minute act by the 60-year-old magician was adjudged excellent under Senior Citizen category. Rohan Khante MLA presented a memento to honour the magician. 

For the last 31years, Mr. Banerjee has been a face familiar to participants of magic conventions held at different places of the country. He was also a winner during INDIAJaal, the patriotic convention held in Thiruvananthapuram under the auspices of the Magic Academy. Sammohanam magic meet in Ahmadabad also witnessed the veteran magician’s extraordinary skill.

Free magic camp to mark children’s day

Open to 300 first registrants

Thiruvananthapuram: A thoroughly magical day awaits children who cherish the children’s day celebrations. On 13th of November, Magic Academy, in association with the Jawahar Balabhavan is going to conduct an array of sumptuous activities to celebrate the 123rd birthday of Jawaharlal Nehru. Surprisingly, it would be a no-registration fee event, limited to lucky 300 who register first. Motivational magic and speech by favourite ‘magic uncle’, Gopinath Muthukad will be the major attraction of the day. 

The camp titled ‘Chacha Magic’ is to inspire the new generation children with variety of thought provoking and character formulating segments. There is also an enlightening session by noted psychologist, Dr. L.R. Madhujan. A session on memory enhancement by the Academy Director, Chandrasenan Mithirmala would provide tips to cope with parents’ concerns over academic performances of their wards. Aim of the whole event is to empower children to become novel contributors for the country. 

Drenching the day with magic, child prodigies from the Academy would be performing magic shows. 

Registration is on. Interested children may submit their names at Magic Academy, Poojappura. For more information, contact: 9446078535 / 9496817104 / 9447768535. Email: magicacademyindia@gmail.com.

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. 

Magic K Lal - a life sketch

• Full name - Kantilal Girdharilal Vora

• Born on 17^th  January 1924 in Bagasara town in Amreli district of Gujarat

• His last show was in Ahmedabad in June 2012

• Performed 22000 shows in 61 years

• Lived and worked most of his life in Kolkata, the Magic Capital of India

• Great magician Ganpati Chakravarty accepted K. Lal and led him to becoming magician

• Returned to his home state in 1990

• K Lal had started displaying his mastery with creating illusion way back in ‘40s in a gathering in Vanthali village

• The veteran had started employing computer-generated graphics and imagery to add to the impact

• He was also maintained a personal collection of over 10,000 magic books

• The magician was  88 years

• Passed away at his residence at Ashram Road in Ahmedabad

• Demise was early on Sunday – September 23, 2012

• The last rites performed at SG Road crematorium

‘Bhishmacharya’ K Lal, an organizer too…

By Gopinath Muthukad

Magician Gopinath Muthukad and Magician
Rajkumar with the Master Magician K Lal
at the VISMAYAM 2008 convention [File Photo]

To the latest, Sammohanam 2011, the national convention held in Ahmedabad was another sparkling momentum made by the miraculous magician great K Lal. As the chief organizer of the convention and president of Gurjar Magic Society in Ahmedabad, he was the stardom too to the media and native magicians.

The very thoughtful host of the event was well with his concerns to ensure the comfort of every delegate and guest. The warmth and affection showered on me was profound. While speaking to me at Sammohanam convention, he said that it was for the first time that the city of Ahmedabad witnessed a magic convention on such a big scale. I found the untiring master excited with his accomplishments.

He uttered his commitment with magic and society. In his presidential address of the Sammohanam convention he has stated; “being a professional magician, I have devoted my entire active life of 72 years in the services, uplifting and bringing the recognition to the art of magic in the country, with the numerous new experiments and the novel messages for the betterment of the society and for the national integrity through this transparent medium of magic.”

He had a dream and desire to bring together all magicians at his native state, Gujarat. He has designed every gathering of Indian magicians for strengthening the personal relations and feelings of brotherhood among magicians. Magicians used to take it as their privilege to be the guest of the great Bhishmacharya in magic.

I had the privilege to be with this master magician during the days of Sammohanam 2011. His charm will shine in the horizon of Indian magic forever.

Magic Academy to set up country’s first magicians’ portal

No fee, no hassle; magicians can benefit

Thiruvananthapuram: To be available online is the call of the time. Responding to this pivotal fact, Magic Academy is setting up a sophisticated web portal to assemble native magicians on the pristine
cyberspace. An online portal was one of the demands placed by most of the magicians during the state-level magic festival, Bhagyavismayam conducted through three regions, by the Academy. The portal project is sequel to the online magicians’ directory built in 2009 and print editions previously brought out in 2004 and 2008 by the Academy. (Confirm years) By becoming online, magicians could tap more opportunities for selling their entertainment service, hopes the Academy. Once established the portal will pave way for the authorities and show organizers to easily identify magicians and contact them for facilitating assistance and booking shows. The cyber presence Magic Academy to set up country’s first magicians’ portal No fee, no hassle; magicians can benefit is also essential for furthering the dignity of the community. Website dedicated to the magical art and its performers will not only foster fraternity among the members, but also highlight the shining achievements made by them. This would stop sidelining of the wonderful art, brining magicians to the mainstream. To achieve all these objectives, the web portal would offer efficient search facilities, easy submission of information, quick contact provisions and hasslefree post-editing of data submitted. By obtaining a user ID and password, each magician gets an authority over preserving and updating his information from anywhere, anytime. It would be an online canvas making available at a mouse click, the enchanting vibrancy and versatility of native magic community. The Academy has set up a team of navigators to help magicians make registration easy and hassle-free. For information and help, contact: Tel: 9496817104/ 9446078535/ 9447768535/ 0471-2358910. Email: magicacademyindia@gmail.com

Now, ‘Escape’ to classrooms

Thiruvananthapuram: Young expert in escape magic tricks, Escape Arun travels all the way from Chennai to offer training for his counterparts during the coming sessions of the monthly orientation classes. He would take on the teacher’s mantle at 104th Perfect Performer Course (PPC) at the Academy’s headquarters here on 13th of October. On the next day, his expertise will be made available as part of the PPC’s 21st session in Kochi.
Suffering from polio, Arun Loganathan’s emergence into an unusual escapologist was out of his strong determination to change the usual notion of people about persons with polio. His risky and challenging feats changed the perception of people who counted him as a youngster with disabilities. Now he is a popular performer by the name, Escape Arun who is well known for his versatile skills in illusions, escape acts, balloon sculpting, hypnosis, street magic, close up magic and stage magic. Native of Chennai and holder of an MBA degree from Singapore, Mr. Arun’s talents to create new magic is indisputable. He has got an extraordinary ability to extract new ideas from mundane magic gadgets. He continues as a charioteer to whom physical challenges never make a hurdle.
To benefit the participants Mr. Arun will be displaying a range of magic props from his magic store many of which would be the first-rate imported ones.
Registration to the event is limited to the first thirty. To make advance registrations, contact, Tel: 9496817104/ 9446078535/ 9447768535/ 0471-2358910. Email: magicacademyindia@gmail.com

The whole story of ‘Magical Realism’

Magic started unrolling as District Collector K.V. Mohankumar threw a ball to the audience. The first one who caught the ball selected the first writer for telling the first context of the story. The ball was then passed among the audience members who selected more writers. The story flourished enchantingly as each writer added an attractive element. For example, the first author selected by the audience was Kanesh Punur who set the background of the story as Government Arts College, Kozhikode and its girl student. Next chance was Mr. Mohankumar’s. He set four characters, one of whom was a girl named Sainaba. Author K.P. Sudheera added a 19-year-old Manohar to the story stream. When his turn came, writer Akbar Kakkattil invited everyone’s attention to a beautiful bird that used to sit on the windows of the college library. 20-year-old Meenakshi came to the scene when U.K. Kumaran’s creativity worked. U.A. Khader twisted the scene adding that Meenakshi happened to see Sainaba and Manohar talking in the library and the bird sitting on the lap of the guy. Another writer Subhash Chandran said that the bird was set free by the boy. A pinch of fiction found its place as Indu Menon added that the bird was the soul of a Krishna Varma Samorin who died long ago. 

Now the first box kept at the rear of the audience was opened. The banner inside carried all the above sequels exactly written on it. Then the second box that hung on the stage was opened to see an engrossing expansion of the story. The story read like this: Manohar was travelling to Kozhikode public library by train. From the railway station he had to walk as no bike rider offered him a lift. At the library he met Sainaba. They walked out and took a respite at the foot of a teak tree. Meenakshi’s sister saw this. Samorin’s soul in the guise of a bird came and sat on the lap of Manohar. He set free the bird which flew to the infinity…
Mr. Muthukad had successfully performed magical translations of a handful of novel works including ‘Wings of Fire’ by Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, ‘Daivathinte Vikruthikal’ by M. Mukundan and jail days of Vaikkam Mohammed Basheer. These were all presentations based on the contexts described in a published work. But the latest feat stands singular in using the aspects of magic for fast sketching thoughts emerging from writers’ minds.

Muthukad foretells their story before writers finish thinking

New programme, ‘Magical Realism’ lives up to its name

Kozhikode: Magician Gopinath Muthukad staged yet another feat here by successfully foretelling the contexts and climax of a story well before a team of writers could finish conceiving it.

Titled, ‘Magical Realism’ the show held at the Town Hall here on 21st of September started with a group of randomly selected authors from the audience entering the magician’s stage. At first, two boxes labelled ‘story chests’ were introduced. The first box, locked and placed at the rear end of the audience carried a number of smaller boxes, the smallest of which contained a blank banner. The second one was hanging from the roof of the stage adding suspense.

Audience were allowed to ask any writer of their choice to tell the contexts of the story. Each author started to make the story impressive. All these time, without any lapse, emerging ideas were astutely noted down by the magician using different colour pens on a big canvass sheet.

Once the authors’ dais completed telling the contexts, the ‘story chest’ at the rear of the audience was opened. The empty banner inside was no more empty. It contained exactly the ideas generated by the writers’ forum. Colour and content were also exactly matching to that on the canvass sheet. Not over, popping up another wonder, the second story chest hanging on the stage was opened to find a sheet of paper telling the story in its complete form. The magician read out the enchanting expansion of the story to receive a thunderous applause. The authors expressed their wholehearted approval of the magician’s story that was nothing different from what they carried in their minds. Finally, audience roared in excitement as a bike mentioned by the authors appeared on the stage, bearing exactly the same registration number. The climax of the magic programme was thus living up to its name, ‘Magical Realism’.

Along with audience, participating in the story-making discussion were writers including Akbar Kakkattil, Indu Menon and Subhash Chandran among others. Earlier, the programme was chaired by Dr. M.G.S. Menon and inaugurated by the writer turned District Collector, K.V. Mohankumar. Literary figures including Dr. M.M. Basheer, U.A. Khader and T.R. Ajayan spoke on the occasion. Chief architect of the magic programme, Gopinath Muthukad gave introductory speech. Director of the Magic Academy, Chandrasenan Mithirmala delivered welcome speech and District Information Officer, Khader Palazhi recorded vote of thanks.

Master illusionist K Lal passes away

Renowned magician Kantilal Girdharilal Vora, famously known as K Lal, passed away at his residence in Ahmedabad early on Sunday due to old-age related problems. He was 88.
Lal is survived by wife Pushpa, son Harshad Vora and daughters Priti Vasa and Sonal Shah.
His cremation, expected to be attended by people from all walks of life, is scheduled for Monday noon at Mukti Dham.