Shillong, Aug. 22: The Sorcar brand of magic has finally come to town.
Provas Chandra Sorcar, youngest son of P.C. Sorcar Senior, the legendary magic maestro, will mesmerise audiences at a local movie theatre (Anjali Cinema) for the next few days.
The show, sponsored by the Rotary Club of Shillong, will raise funds for community service. It will start tomorrow at 5.30 pm and continue till next Friday at Anjali. A show in Jowai will start from August 2.
Resplendent in a magician’s robes and bejewelled turban, P.C. Sorcar Young (as he is widely known in magic circles), said this is his first magic show in Shillong. But this was by no means his first visit to the city since the wizard had visited Shillong with his illustrious father who has always had a special fondness for the place.
Even as Young refused to divulge details about the highlights of his show, he admitted that his bag of tricks will include his family’s trademark “Water of India” item. Young will also beguile audiences with offerings such as ghosts dancing in the dark and “Soul through Soul” which will show one human being entering the body of another.
A post-graduate in mathematics like his father, Young wears many hats. An accomplished sitarist, pilot and ballet dancer, the abracadabra man trained under dance maestro Uday Shankar and even choreographed the life of Emperor Ashok in the ballet Rhythm of 262 BC. But it is magic to which he has been irresistibly drawn since childhood.
Assisting his brother Sorcar Junior “from behind the curtains”, Young took to performing shows in 1982. By the late Eighties, he even opened his school of magic in Calcutta. Overwhelmed by letters, which he received from schoolboys in Shillong, the maestro has plans to open a school here too.
And if that isn’t enough, the wizard promises to make the Eiffel Tower in Paris disappear in the near future. After all, it was he who had helped Sorcar Junior make the Taj Mahal disappear from Agra.
An ardent advocate of telepathy, Young shares a close bond with son Pouroosh, who aids and accompanies him on his tours. As the torchbearer of their family’s tradition, both father and son have made magic their calling. “It is integral to life for even when we swallow a pill, we expect magic to unfold,” said Young, who believes that magic is both an art and science.
The maestro feels that magic has not lost its appeal despite the onslaught of television and video games. “It is a mix of dance, drama, costumes, hypnotism and sleight of hand. In other words, magic has all the ingredients of wholesome entertainment,” he explained.
