Jadugar Akash rides a bike blindfolded

The youngster Akash, son of noted magician Jadugar Anand drove the bike for almost 20 km starting from the Kala Academy through Panjim Jetty, Patto bridge, St. Inez, Campal and back to the Academy. City Mayor Tony Rodrigues had flagged off the ride. Addressing a gathering in front of the Academy, the venue of the coming International Film Festival of India(IFFI), Jadugar Anand said the ride was to educate the people on the need for traffic safety awareness as sheer carelessness on the part of the road users caused accidents. The visually challenged were more careful in this respect, he added. Akash performed the show on the eve of his father's mega magic show beginning here tomorrow in the open auditorim of the Academy. Akash will also feature in another show at Campal ground in the 'great fire escape'. He would be chained and dumped onto a haystack on fire from a crane on November 26 during the show on the sidelines of the IFFI, the organisers told UNI.

anand jadugar the magicians

Jadugar Anand cutting the stomach of a girl with a motorised saw
at his magic show in Visakhapatnam on May 31, 2007.

anand jadugar

A girl
hangs in the air as Jadugar Anand seems to cast a spell on
her at his magic show in Visakhapatnam on May 31, 2007.

Abracadabra!

As a kid I was always fascinated with the concept of magic shows, it was like entering a different world where everything seemed possible. From flying bikes, dancing tigers to enigmatic stunts, you can see it all.
Watch Jadugar Anand aka the world’s fastest magician in action and be totally amazed. You can also witness the statue of liberty disappear in slow motion or spot an elephant appear from thin air and many more wonders and miracles with colourful lighting and scintillating and royal set ups and get mesmerized.
Tickets are available at Kalaivanar Arangam and Landmark stores and the rates are also cheap ranging from Rs100 to Rs 500. Enter the world of wonder and witness the enigmas of the magic world.

Overwhelming response to Jadugar Anand's magic show in Shimoga

SHIMOGA: The magic shows by Jadugar Anand and his troupe of 150 at the Kuvempu Rang Mandir here since June 23 is a veritable "maya loka." The troupe led by Mr. Anand has presented over 27,000 shows in 36 countries.
The show appears to have become an instant success here judging by the overwhelming response from all age groups.
The gradual disappearance of the `Statue of Liberty' and the entry of an elephant on to the dais are some of attractions of the show. Mr. Anand has presented over 600 shows in Karnataka.
The other interesting items include a girl being placed on the edge of a sword, a woman floating in the air and a girl being cut into pieces and put back together.
The spectators are amazed when a six-foot man comes out of the `magic box' as a three-foot dwarf. The three-hour show is full of entertainment.
Mr. Anand, who is president of the All-India Association of Magicians, is working hard to bring respectability to the art of magic. He has proposed to float a separate academy to promote the art.
Besides, he has initiated steps to take care of the members of the association by extending financial help and healthcare.
However, Mr. Anand, a postgraduate in English, feels the Government is not encouraging magic as an art compared with other art forms.

Mayalok by Jadugar Anand.

Kochi: Magician Anand, with 26,500 shows all over the world, promises that he will, in two years, perform the Great Indian Rope Trick, the Holy Grail for the fraternity of magicians across the world.
Mr. Anand told presspersons here on Wednesday that he hoped to do the rope trick in two years in an open space under the strict conditions stipulated by the World Brotherhood of Magicians, which has declared a five million-dollar prize for the one who completes the feat.
The trick has not been performed for the last 100 years in its proper sense, although several varieties of it have been around, says Jadugar Anand, as he is known.
He, for example, showed a sample of what could be done with a three-foot white rope to tickle the interest of journalists in the city.
None other than Emperor Jahangir had testified to having seen the rope trick, good and proper, in his days, says Mr. Anand whose show in the city begins on Friday at the Fine Arts Hall.
The show is expected to be on for at least 10 days.
Ahead of the magic shows, a blindfolded motorcycle ride through the city is being organised on Thursday. The ride will begin at 10 a.m. from the Fine Arts Hall.
Jadugar Anand has called for encouragement to the art of magic since other State governments in the country are still not following the example of Kerala, which has exempted magic from entertainment tax, and Rajasthan, which has given permission for setting up a magic academy.
He is the national president of the All-India Magic Federation, which has nearly 60,000 members from among professional and amateur magicians and magic lovers.
He said that Kerala had produced great magicians and continued to be a place where magic flourished.
There were nearly 3,000 magicians, many of them world class, in the State.
The Kochi show is the last leg of Anand's tour of South India, which began in Chennai. He completed 33 shows in Thiruvananthapuram.

Jaadooo... inkee nazar

In the age of non-stop music and entertainment, Anand Avasthi casts a spell of 9,000 seconds of illusion
AN ELEPHANT vanishes at the wink of an eyelid and a snake turns a charming damsel in a split second... that is Jadugar Anand's Mayalok. A magician par excellence, Anand has a trick up his sleeve for every second one spends in his world of illusions.
In the days of TV soap operas, here comes a refreshing wholesome family entertainer, that too, at an unmatched speed. A veteran of 26,000 shows, Anand provides the right mix of music, magic, dance and drama with the perfect blend of stage craft to keep the audience glued to their seats during the two-and-a-half hours of magic show that promises to entertain people of Guntur during the week at Sri Venkateswara Vignan Mandiram.
Introducing himself to the audience in the most magical way, Anand appears on the stage from nowhere to put himself in the `Book of Magic' that unfolds page by page. An embroidered impressive flowing cloak with typical turban with a heavy coat of make-up on the face provides the mysterious look that captivates attention.
World record holder in under-water escaping within 40 seconds, Anand believes in providing the nava rasa with a technical edge to provide a touch of modernity. Beginning the show with the usual tricks like building a castle of playing cards, producing a garland from thin air to honour the chief guest of the show and converting a magic wand into a bouquet of flowers, he went on to perform the more difficult vanishing acts.
Converting a beautiful girl into a beast, a snake into a girl and back as a snake in full public gaze kept people guessing. Variations in vanishing acts, dramatising them keeps the audience interest intact in the magic show. Use of film clippings and laser beams enhances the quality of the magic show when compared to similar ones a decade ago.
Social messages like fighting corruption were effectively driven home with a trick or two spliced into a narrative story. The background commentary was dubbed in Telugu topically changing the scenes to suit the local political condition and social practices. No show is complete without audience interaction and Anand invited the District Collector, K. Ramakrishna Rao's son Siddharth on to the dais to perform a few hilarious tricks to keep the interest of the young visitors intact.
For the three boys, who boldly came on to the dais, a photograph each with Jadugar Anand came as a bonus to proudly show to their friends at the school.
To keep the Doubting Thomas at bay a visitor, Sekhar Reddy, was chosen from the audience to watch the vanishing trick on Anand's assistant. By convincing the representative of the spectators, Anand had won the hearts of all.
Bringing a real elephant on to the dais was an elephantine task for his staff, but vanishing it was a cakewalk for the magician. Out of Anand's Mayalok, he was the talk of the town from schools to offices.

ANAND’S MAGIC

...If at all there was anything in the air, it was magic. And those strange notions of suspicion a mere figment of over-active imagination. The kind that Anand Awasthi (the host) good-naturedly accepts as an integral part of his life and work as a professional magician. No wonder then, as he offers a cup of coffee, he is quick to add, ``Don't be afraid to drink it, just because it's being offered by a magician!'' before breaking into a loud guffaw.
City folk watch in open-mouthed astonishment as Anand unloads his bag of tricks before them. A snake turning into a girl and then back into a snake, an Egyptian mummy coming to life, floating in mid-air, disappearing off the stage and emerging from somewhere in the audience, a girl being transformed into a bear... the list is long.
While Anand is seen to perform these tricks just with the wave of a wand, it's been an arduous journey to reach this stage. And it began more than 30 years ago in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, with the street-side jugglers being his initial idols. ``As the madaris would play around with silver coins, produce sweets out of nowhere, I'd watch mesmerised. Since then, I knew magic was in my blood, and I wished to leave my schooling in pursuit of that,'' he says.
Of course, he did not leave his education half-way, even acquiring a master's in economics. Finding no teacher in the realm of magic, he coached himself. Watching the jugglers, picking up the nitty-gritties, he'd realise where the trick lay each time somebody made a mistake. Beginning with items such as coins and handkerchiefs, he graduated from being a conjurer to doing floor shows and tricks like drinking highly concentrated nitric acid and chewing tubelights till he reached this stage - of performing elaborate shows that emphasise the power of illusion.
``Initially I was into doing the adventurous, dare-devil kind of tricks. Especially since that was the time I had to prove my mettle. Now having found my groove, I concentrate on bettering my stage shows so that the audience has a good time each time,'' elaborates Anand. Though he had been entertaining crowds since his school days, his first commercial show came in 1973 at Raipur when he was just 21, and today, has more than 23,000 performances to his credit, including many on foreign shores.
``I believe that a good item and successful show is one that has given me the greatest satisfaction to perform,'' says Anand, like the two feats that remain unparalleled so far. The first was at the age of 17, when walking in Harry Houdini's watery footsteps, he managed to accomplish an underwater escape in 40 seconds flat. ``Houdini had done it in six minutes, P.C.Sorkar senior in 90 seconds. I just knew I could do it ever since I saw a film on Houdini's original escape in my childhood.'' The second world record was earned from a 200-kilometre motorcycle ride from Indore to Bhopal - blindfolded, with only his instincts to guide him. Both these accomplishments came whilst still at college.
However, as he progressed in his chosen profession, there was a lot he had to give up. The most important being the support of his family, who just would not come to terms with Anand's ways of magic. And whilst still coping with that, came the realisation that magicians could not evoke the same kind of respect that comes the way of other performing artistes. ``It's only a cheap type of curiosity that comes our way. Magic, according to me, is a pleasing and amusing art of exhibition, skill and practice for the sake of innocent entertainment. Using concepts like hypnosis, mesmerisation and effectively exploiting the power of illusion, magicians aspire to entertain their audience. This is not voodoo or witchcraft, as is often wrongly thought,'' he emphasises.
Which is why he cannot understand the apprehension that comes the way of the performers of magic - which is not just a dying tradition, but ``a viable art that earns foreign exchange. And this is even more in our country. Today, we just have a handful of magicians left, who are struggling to keep this unique tradition alive, with no support from any quarter.'' No wonder then, Anand's proposal for the establishment of an academy of magic on the lines of a regular educational institute never saw the light of day.
Painfully aware that his magic wand cannot change such perceptions, he continues to put it to uses that have been tried and tested - entertaining people with a whole new world that has no worries and anxieties, just wonder and amazement.

Magic talk!

The CHARMER Jadugar Anand
I expect him to produce a red rose out of nowhere, to welcome me. Sadly, nothing happens. He just smiles, and I take my seat.
Sans the make up and the magician’s glittering garb, it is impossible to associate Jadugar Anand with those mind boggling tricks he performs on the stage. But when he begins talking, his stories and views are as engaging as his shows.
The only son of a Brahmin family in Jabalpur, he has been fascinated with magic ever since he was seven. He recalls being smitten by street performers near his primary school who produced laddoos and jalebis out of nowhere. “I was interested not in the trick, but in the sweets that came to me free of cost. When they moved, I missed them, and decided to get into magic myself. I went in search of magicians, and swamis who claimed to perform ‘divine miracle’.”
In Class II, he entertained classmates by drinking concentrated nitric acid and consuming tube lights.