Magic in Chennai: Meet magician Dhayaa, who impressed Vijay, Rajinikanth
The Hindu
Magician Dhayaa, who hails from Coimbatore, has a show in Chennai on May 21. In this, he will perform a grand manipulation-based illusion
Dhayaa keeps four coins in his right hand and closes it. He shows us his empty left hand, and then closes both hands.
Smiling at the curious faces in front of him, Dhayaa whistles softly and in a few seconds, opens his left hand. One coin has magically landed there. The audience gasps.
Magician Dhayanithi K alias Dhayaa, who hails from Coimbatore, has been entertaining audiences in the corporate sector, and on television shows for more than two decades. This Sunday, he takes to the stage in Chennai for a show that he promises will be special. “Magic when performed live is the real deal. If you watch it on television, you will never know what is true and what is edited or CG-enhanced,” he says.
The highlight of this two-hour show, which promises to provide a Las Vegas-like experience in Chennai, will be a manipulation-based grand illusion that he will premiere for the first time in the city. He does not reveal specific details, but says, “I performed it in 2018 in a magicians’ conclave in Italy and won the championship. Even world-renowned magicians, who had assembled there, were amazed by this particular trick.”
This manipulation illusion is a trick Dhayaa created himself; magic itself, he describes, falls under the broad categories of vanishing, production, transformation and mind-reading. “Using a few elements from all these, I created this trick,” he proudly says.
Heart of the matter
Dhayaa started out performing small magic tricks as a hobby, but made it his profession once he got good at it. His show on Jaya TV, Mandhiram Oru Thanthiram, was one of the widely-followed magic shows in the State, because he successfully performed close-up magic, sometimes even borrowing props from the audience. “It looks easy, but it requires hours of practise. Most arts, including Carnatic music or paintings, require some basic knowledge for audiences to appreciate its nuances, but magic can be enjoyed by all,” says Dhayaa, who has trained under magician Veerasekhar in Coimbatore.
Prarthana Prasad is a social media influencer, entrepreneur and a leading voice from the LGBTQ+ community. At a recent Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I) Conclave held in Bengaluru she opened up about how she is often a “token ticket” for the corporate world, increasingly contacted by brands for promotion during Pride Month.