Rose from Glass-cube: Top Magician Muthukad’s All-India Tour Nears Finishing Point

BHOPAL:
Globally-renowned illusionist and motivational speaker Gopinath Muthukad surprised his audience in the city today, leading them to believe that their “love-filled glance” cracked open a handy glass-cube to ‘free’ the flower inside it. The 100-minute show was the penultimate along the wizard’s two-month all-India tour featuring pioneering items of magic.

At the Madhya Pradesh capital, Muthukad also performed a string of 12 innovative models that highlighted the spirit of supporting people with different abilities, earning loud applause from the onlookers and highlighting magic as an art-form to spread socially relevant messages.

“The rose you all managed to pull out of my small glass cylinder symbolises the innocent soul of any new-born in this world. All of us deserve a decent life, no matter how much we differ as humans,” the60-year-old performer said after the new trick, reinforcing the message of ‘Social Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities’ which is integral to his cross-country voyage that is set to conclude in Delhi next week.

The entire set of items in Bhopal went well 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 ‘Inclusive India’ campaign by the illusionist, who is a winner of the International Merlin Award which is considered as the Oscar in the field of magic.

“Those with physical disabilities suffer in three ways: physical limitations, social exclusivity and emotional insufficiency. This is particularly stark in our country,” according to Muthukad, a winner of the Merlin Award (2011) instituted by the US-based International Magicians’ Society. “We need to break these barriers. My magic acts as a bridge between this vulnerable group and society at large.”

The expedition covers the entire length and breadth of the country, bolstering the ethos of the Thiruvananthapuram-based Magic Planet’s decade-old goals: familarising the public with wizardry, reviving street tricks and employing this art to empower marginalised groups. The magician had Bhiwari (Rajasthan) as his previous stopover, while the final destination is the national capital on December 3.

Muthukad’s trip, which began from the southern tip of the peninsula on October 6, had been punctuated with stopovers along the central plains, the hilly east, Gujarat in the west and Jammu & Kashmir up north before culminating in the national capital on coming Tuesday. The Kanyakumari-Delhi journey has been disseminating his ideas around national integration, upholding age-old values and working against communalism.

“By lighting lamps, we have been drawing public attention to the benefits and vitality of equal opportunities for individuals with disabilities,” says Muthukad, 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. “We covered all the states, campaigning along the mainland with a total of 41 events that includes the inauguration and culmination.”

While the start of the ride on October 6 was World Cerebral Palsy Day, the conclusion on December 3 is International Day for Persons with Disabilities. ‘Inclusive India’ was flagged off from Thiruvananthapuram by Kerala Governor Arif Mohammad Khan on October 5. Across its journey, the campaign has been circulating innovative awareness-generation video document. Each event is being organised in collaboration with the DEPwD’s regional institute or centre.

As 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 so as to boost their confidence and self-esteem. All these, through the effective 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 program 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 Dr Ambedkar International Centre in 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.