Jadu

Jadu of Anand

A girl is being cut using an electric saw at the Jadugar Anand's Magic Show in Coimbatore.

Performance of magic is all about perception. Making impossible possible is impossible. So magicians make the impossible seemingly possible. I had started writing this post nearly a month back, but managed to finish it today. I had gone with my family members to Jadugar Anand’s Magic Show at Kamarajar Arangam near Royapettah, soon after returning from Harish’s new house. Before going inside, I didn’t think much of it. The show was supposed to start by 10 minutes after we parked the car, and even that time the parking lot was near empty! Tickets ranged from Rs.50 to Rs.500, but we decided to settle with a Rs.300 ticket each. We went inside and took our places right in the middle of the 5th row or so.
The show started 15 minutes late and till then music was being played with music reaching nearly the decibel level of an aircraft taking off! Just before it started, I turned around and gasped in surprised that the auditorium was near houseful!!! It started off with a narration on how Anand became a magician. She said that he is the “World’s Fastest Magician” (Don’t ask me what she meant by it, coz I really don’t know!) and went on to say that he holds 3 Guinness World Records!

HYDERABAD: "It's time I disappear," Laxmi, the 11-year-old elephant of Jadugar Anand would hum if it could. The stage is set and permission granted for Jadugar Anand to make Laxmi vanish, not once but twice every day from October 26 at Prakasham Hall, Gandhi Bhavan, Nampally. Laxmi is set to come on to the stage from among the audience and vanish after a chant of one...two...three, by Jadugar Anand. The magician and his troupe have completed 70 shows at the Hari Hara Kala Bhavan, Secunderabad since September 18, this year. But the grand elephant vanishing act was canned, thanks to the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad (MCH). The MCH had denied permission for the elephant to take the stage during the magic show, citing security reasons. But now, the elephant will be there for all to see vanish. "That was an MCH managed auditorium, so we had to have permission for the act, now we are performing in a private hall, so we can do all our acts," said troupe manager, Das Gupta.

A minimum of 30 shows are planned and every day two shows will be held at 4 pm and 7 pm, with the inaugural slated for Sunday at 4 pm. Union minister for urban development and poverty alleviation, Bandaru Dattatreya and many others will attend.