“Do You Believe In Magic?” Once Asked A Magician

Magic is not a miracle. Hence, a magician can’t bring back the dead. At least that’s what people believe. But can a magician's magic kill someone? If not, then what happened at the climax of one of the renowned magicians', PC Sorcar, panoramic performance in West London?

World's Greatest Magician, Source: The Indian Express

A 17-year-old girl was laid on a table and was sliced with a buzz saw in front of millions of people watching live on BBC. The magician seemed very confident until he held the girl’s hand and rubbed it. There was no response from the girl. He shook his head and covered her face with a cloth. Viewers were stunned and were looking forward to what the magician, PC Sorcar, will do next. But before he could swish and flick his wand the presenter, Richard Dimbley, announced the show was over.

On the summer night of 9th April, 1956 the viewers were convinced that the girl was dead. BBC’s switchboard received hundreds of calls that night claiming that they witnessed a murder in a top-rated Panorama Programme.

Apparently, this whole thing was plotted by PC Sorcar just to increase the number of bookings for the three-week session at London’s Duke of York session. But what was an Indian magician doing in London?

Protul Chandra Sarkar was born on 23rd February 1913 in the village of Ashekpur in the Tangail district of East Bengal. In his schooling years, he was brilliant in mathematics and loved performing tricks in front of his schoolmates. And due to his interest in magic, he changed his surname from Sarkar to Sorcar which sounds more like “sorcerer”.

He claimed himself as “The World’s Greatest Magician” and this claim manifested various opportunities for him abroad. But his struggles did not end there. The world had a notion toward Indian magicians. People perceived India to be a land of snake charmers and its magicians to be unskilled.

Sorcar knew this and hence, presented Indianness everywhere he performed magic. The stages were designed to give a glimpse of the Taj Mahal. He used to begin the show by drawing mandala art showcasing the creativity of India and by lighting up an oil lamp in front of a portrait of Goddess Durga. He used to dress himself in royal attire giving an ethnic look. He redefined the definition of Indian magicians in the minds of Western audiences. Hence, his shows were just not about magic but also focused on representing Indian art and culture.

He is best remembered for his show named Indrajaal or The Magic of India which premiered in Paris in November 1955. He was the only magician in his time who was well-equipped and performed Western magic tricks adding his own unique flair to them. His unbelievable stage acts, such as “Water of India” in which no matter how many times he threw away the water, the pot remained filled to the brim, made him the most demanded magician across the globe.

His life had become so much about magic and performance that when in 1970 he was advised by a doctor to take a rest, he flew to Japan for a packed program of around four months. On 6th January 1971, after performing in a show named Shibetsu, he had a severe heart attack and left the world robbed of his magic. Fortunately, his legacy is still carried forward by his granddaughter, Maneka Sorcar.