Just-done tricks reported in press 18 months ago: Magician surprises crowd
Showing his mastery over tricks of time travel, world-renowned illusionist Gopinath Muthukad stunned his spectators in the city by leading them to read about his just-performed tricks in today’s newspapers, though making them believe that these were happening one-and-a-half years ago and that too in their presence at that time.
At National Institute for Locomotor Disabilities (NILD), Kolkata, where Muthukad is on a stopover as part of his mission-bound all-India tour, the magician called random attendees on to the stage. They participated in his select items and were then shown the printed clippings kept on the table. The onlookers were surprised: the write-ups from the newspapers of early 2023 described the tricks they had joined in only a few minutes ago. Surprisingly, these reports carried their names, and that of today’s place and date.
“It’s a case of time travel. Of mind-reading,” said the magician, whose trick highlighted the spirit of his ‘Inclusive India’ campaign carrying the core message of supporting people with different abilities.
“If you want to include certain portions to existing matter, you can do it with willpower,” he added, earning loud applause from the onlookers and highlighting his motto of magic as an art for social reformation.
“If someone has physical disability, just include them in ways that make them feel they are part of the mainstream. The results will be miraculous,” according to the winner of the coveted Merlin Award (2011) instituted by the US-based International Magicians’ Society. “My magic bridges such vulnerable groups with society at large.”
To Muthukad, those with physical disabilities often suffer in three ways: physical limitations, social exclusivity and emotional insufficiency. “Sadly, this is stark in India,” he added, contrasting the case with certain countries, where “a blind person can travel on his or her own for any distances without relying on fellow passengers.”
The entire set of items presented here on 25th morning went in tune with the activities at Kerala-born Muthukad’s trailblazing ‘Magic Planet’, which is the world’s first such theme park that protects public-oriented art forms and street performers. Two months is the span of the campaign with the mission of ‘Social Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities’.
The expedition began earlier this month and covers the length and breadth of the country, bolstering the ethos of the Thiruvananthapuram-based Magic Planet’s goals: familiarising the public with wizardry, reviving street tricks and employing this art to empower the marginalised. The earlier stopover of ‘Inclusive India’ was Bokaro while the next destination is Siliguri (October 29).
In another highlight of the show, Muthukad’s request to look keenly at a glass cube in front of them resulted in the handy object cracking open, freeing a red flower inside it. “The rose that sprang out symbolises the innocent soul of any new-born. All of us deserve a decent life; only that all must get equal opportunities,” he said.
The magician’s trip, which began from the southern tip of the peninsula on October 6, has stopovers along the central plains, the hilly east, Gujarat in the west and Jammu & Kashmir up north before culminating in the national capital. The Kanyakumari-Delhijourney, which is to end on December 3, disseminates his ideas around national integration, upholding age-old values and working against communalism and terrorism.
“By lighting lamps, we have been drawing public attention to the benefits and vitality of equal opportunities,” says the magician, who heads an NGO named Different Art Centre (DAC) which is steering the mission that enjoys non-financial support from the Union Government’s Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD) under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.
“Our voyage covers all the states. We campaign across the mainland with a total of 41 events that includes the inauguration and culmination,” he points out.
While the mission began on October 6 (World Cerebral Palsy Day), the conclusion on December 3 is International Day for Persons with Disabilities. Overall, 36 locations dot the campaign. Across its journey, the campaign has been circulating innovative awareness-generation videos. Each event is being organised in collaboration with the DEPwD’s regional institute or centre.
As 60-year-old Muthukad notes, the idea is not just to spread information on the scope of creating equal opportunities for children with disabilities. “We highlight the need for opportunities that can express their special talent to boost their confidence and self-esteem. All these, through the use of the boundless entertainment value of magic.”
Muthukad is the Executive Director of DAC he founded five years ago. Way back in 1995, he became the world’s first magician to perform an escape act in the stunning style of legendary Harry Houdini (1874-1926). While the DAC develops and implements an innovative programme of ‘Magic Training’ for children with disabilities, the NGO has gone on to emerge as a pioneer in facilitating professional performance platforms for trained magicians with special needs.
The December 3 culmination event at New Delhi will see the participation of ministers and other parliamentarians besides top government officials.
This is Muthukad’s fifth such all-India venture using magic to spread social messages.