Much magical Munch Star Singer

Budding columnist, Ramu Bhattathiri on the role of magic on a popular TV reality show.

With the second season of the very popular music talent show called Munch Star Singer Junior, already underway, there was an element missing in the show. Before pondering more time on what it was other than music, let me tell you it is the Magic. The first and foremost season of the music talent show, was full of music filled with the elemnt of Magic, as it had our own Magic Uncle, Gopinath Muthukad as the Judge for most parts of the show. He used to mesmerize the contestants, judges and the viewers of the show. He also provided valuable thoughts from the magical heart, and envisaged the contestants to become more and more confident and efficient in their journey of life.

Now, the show has energized, with the return of the master magician. He has now come all the way again, to start from where he had left off in the last season. He is still continuing to put in that magic into his presence and it is always a treat to watch when he performs and speaks. The music and the magic. Surely, both of them makes a great and inseparable blend. With the music from the tiny tots, and the magic from Magic Uncle, Munch Star Singer is again becoming like it was in the last season. Now the magic has improved, so as the music.As the competition gets harder, Magic is the perfect thing that you want to cool your hearts up. And this is exactly, what the show provides. So, this is one show that you will never want to miss.

[This article is first published in the July 2010 issue of the Vismayam Magical News]

I call it an experience: Ramu

"My confidence was moulded when I studied at the Magic Academy" Ramu Bhattathiri, winner of The Hindu Young World Quiz writes


The day is October the 26th of 2009.It was the day slated for the prestigious Trivandrum leg of The Hindu Young World Quiz 2009. The venue was Tagore Theatre. The first level to cross for me and my teammmate, Nicole Noyal Thomas, was the inquisitive and intriguing preliminary round to select the best six of the region. As 25 questions came to us in quick succession, we stood firm and gave the answers, based on what we knew the best. We were strong believers of the fact that, we should never give up until and unless we are forced to. The discussion of the answers to the prelims made us more and more confident and almost made us sure that we were among those 6 best teams of this region. A long wait and then it was time, as the Quiz Master, Mr.V.V.Ramanan, called upon the best six in ascending order of their points in the preliminary round of selections. Then he called, as the third best scorers in the prelims, from St.Thomas Central School, Nicole Noyal Thomas and Ramu N.Bhattathiri. We sat on the fourth table and were praying and praying to God.

The final began. In the first round, we disappointed. We had a big zero on our score sheets. Second round passed and we were off the mark, with 5 points. But the next round, the Audio-Visual round proved to be immensely crucial for us. After the round, we were leading and that too with 95 points. A single round gave us 90 points. The rounds continued. When the last round began, we were at 115 points. The team following us had 98 points. This was really the test for our grey cells. That turned out to be the buzzer round, which had seven questions. In that round all the teams had 35 points to win and 35 points to lose.+5 points for a correct answer and -5 for a wrong one. The first two questions were answered by the teams placed fourth and fifth. The third question was wrongly answered by the 2nd placed team. That meant negative 5 points for them. They then had 93 and we had 115 points. At that moment, we sensed that there was never any other chance for them to cross our points, even if they answered correctly all the remaining questions. So we thought, why should we go for the buzzer and dig holes for ourselves. We kept calm and cool, and rested in first position.

Winners, Nicole Noyel Thomas (right) and Ramu Bhattathiri with celebrity guest, M. Jayachandran.

The most important thing that I had on stage for the finals was confidence. My confidence was moulded when I studied at the Magic Academy. The classes at the Academy for building confidence helped me immensely and taught me how to remain calm and cool in times of apprehension and pressure. So, the victory that Nicole and I got has a huge part played well by the Academy for boosting up my confidence.

Preeth, who smiles at the results

This is an article written by young magician Ramu Bhattathiri in his open column, 'Ramu's Corner' in the Vismayam Magical News, July issue. Author's Email: ramubhattathiri@gmail.com


P. Preeth

It is such a pity not to recognize the real talent. And this is where the ‘reality’ in the modern-day reality shows really falters. I was recollecting these statements from the result of a reality show that was conducted by a famous channel on Malayalam Television.

One of the students of the Magic Academy had participated in the show. And it was our own brother magician Preeth. As we all know we should never keep on remembering that fact, but here we have to tell the fact that he is dumb and deaf by birth. Being a ‘special’ man, his inabilities was never near his high ambitions for the art of magic.

He learned Magic and made them into new new forms that even the creator of the magic would be amazed to see! He recieved immensely great comments throughout the show, and always he would respond with a sweet smile, that would convey more than a thousand words. As well-wishers, we were all eagerly waiting for the announcement of the result of the show. But, sadly to the surprise of all of us he came 5th out of the 5 final participants. We cannot go and argue for not giving the prize to him.

But, he was literally ‘insulted’ in the finals. When the prizes were distributed, they forgot to atleast mention and thank Preeth for coming over there, and of course for reaching till the finals. There a bit of the ‘humanitarian’ aspect should have been shown. Atleast a shakehand would have been enough. But not even was there a mention of Preeth. Another fact of this is the hidden intentions of the channel to nicely finish the show off, and that too rudely with that commercial touch. But, after having seen all this our Preeth would still smile and will keep on smiling, keeping a lot of his sadness in his heart.