An honour for Raja Moorthy

R. Raja Moorthy

Famous media personality, Mr. Vir Sangvi (NDTV Good Times Show) has wrote a nice review of the time he could spent with the Magic Academy's Director, Mr. R. Raja Moorthy. Mr. Sanghvi watched real-time performance of Moorthy Sir's fabulous close up tricks in Chennai for the NDTV show. The article, indeed is a laurel for Mr. Moorthy. The same is copy-pasted below for your comfortable reading. or Click here to read the original post.
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I SHOT: With a magician for my NDTV Good Times show

The premise of my forthcoming show on Good Times is that you can get virtually anything custom-made for you at a reasonable price in India. Though we’ve done some of the obvious things – custom-made candles, shoes, luggage, clothes, etc. – I wanted to take the Made To Order concept further.
Among the more unusual things we’ve done is to get a top Bollywood composer to write a song for us on camera. And I’ve got a magician to invent a trick for me.
Yes, you read that right. India has many talented young magicians who create their own illusions and follow in the footsteps of David Blaine, abandoning the tradition of big-time stage shows. Why couldn’t one of these guys invent a bespoke trick for me?
After some searching, we found Rajamurthy, a brilliant young magician from Cochin. I know a little bit about magic (it is one of my more unusual passions) so I could see at once that Raja was an exceptional magician.
As the cliché goes, there are only seven basic magic tricks in the world. You judge a magician by how well he adapts these tricks for his own purpose, how he presents them and by how good his hands are.
The secret in all magic is to make the difficult seem effortless. A good magician must be able to move his hands so quickly that you have no idea of what he is really doing. If a magician is not good with his hands, then no matter how big his bag of tricks, he will never make it to the top grade.
Raja is astonishingly gifted and had me and my crew enthralled as he performed Blaine-style close-up magic, doing things right under our noses that shocked and surprised us.
I asked him to design a personalized trick for me. He took a picture of mine, turned it into a jigsaw puzzle and performed a seeming miracle with the pieces of the jigsaw.
I won’t tell you exactly what he did. For that you’ll have to see the show. But you won’t be disappointed.

Magic Academy's award for P.M. Mithra

Thiruvananthapuram: 'Indrajaala Puraskaram' the first ever award for outstanding contributors among magicians, instituted by the Magic Academy goes to P.M. Mithra. Mr. Mithra has been sleected for the award in recognition of the extensive contributions he has made for over three decades, towards the development and popularity of the magical art. The award consisting of Rs.10000 in cash and a certificate of honour will be presented by the Minister of Culture, M.A. Baby in Thiruvananthapuram on 16th of January.

Mr. Mithra has taken up magic as a means to battle with the challenges of life. He was born and brought up in the rustic town of Melukavumattom in Kottayam. When he started learning magic in 1972, Kichu from Vaikom was his first guru. His debut performance christened, 'Mayajal' in 1982 became a grand success, earning him a name as a professional magician. As a magician, his ascend chiefly owed to the qualities of sincerity and dedication. In 80s, Mr. Mithra's magic shows were inevitable part of cultural fairs in the State. Easy and perfect handling of complex illusions was a major quality of Mr. Mithra that became a model for his counterparts. In 2002, the State honour was bestowed upon this veteran magician in the form of the Sangeeta Nataka Academy's award. 54-year-old magician has his wife Aansa, also as an assistant during magic shows. Children: Ashish, Aleena.



Academy's Executive Director, Gopinath Muthukad announces the award at a press conference in Thiruvananthapuram. From left are magicians, Chandrasenan Mithirmala and Vaidhar Shah; on the right are magicians: Rajesh Chandra and S. Sreekanth.

Opinions of major magic organizations in the State including Malabar Magic Circle (MMC), Cochin Magic Society (CMS) and the International Brotherhood of Magicians (IBM) were considered by the Academy for selecting the award winner. The award announcement was jointly made by the Executive Director of the Academy, Gopinath Muthukad; Directors, Chandrasenan Mithirmala and R. Raja Moorthy; former Secretary of the India Ring of the IBM, S. Sreekanth; Secretary of the CMS, Vaidharsha and Director, MMC, Rajesh Chandra were present for the press conference.