Magician P. C. Sorcar(Jr.)
Magician P. C. Sorcar(Jr.)
Birth and family :
Magician P. C. Sorcar (Junior) is the living legend of Indian Magic. He is "BANGAL-KA-JADU" personified and is what "Magic of India" means today.
He comes from the famous SORCAR family of HINDU-MAGICIANS, and this family of "MAGICIANS" or "WONDER-WORKERS", are popular in this field atleast for EIGHT GENERATIONS. Each generation contributed its share of mysticism through centuries and thus have become a house-hold name and are romantically associated with Indian Folk-tales, Fables Literature and Facts. To an average Indian, SORCAR and MAGIC are synonymous.
It is P.C.SORCAR(Senior), father of P.C.SORCAR(Junior), who popularised their family art of "MAGIC" beyond the boundaries of India elevating the presentations to a more prestigious pedestal of theatrical form of International standard, keeping the Indian traditions as the central motif. He gave a new lease of life to the dying art and thus is recognised as "THE FATHER OF INDIAN MAGIC".
P.C.SORCAR(Junior) elevated the status of magic further more from the position where his father left it, to this futuristic mystery-spectacular-entertainment show for the intellectuals, successfully competing with the other forms of theatrical shows. He has added modern techniques, surrealistic sequences, third dimensional choreography, mixture of rustic, tradition and modern music, classical dance along with the intellectual-illusions created by psychological directions, superb technical and mechanical instruments along with his super showmanship and personality. P.C.SORCAR(Junior) is the professional stage name of PRODIP CHANDRA SORCAR. Prodip is the second son of the late P.C.SORCAR,Senior (Pratul Chandra Sorcar), Padmashree, the Father of Indian Magic and was declared by his father as his successor. Both his elder brother, Prafulla and his younger brother Provas Chandra, have also learnt conjuring from their father. "Ours is a family of magicians . . . and performing magic is our birthright. Even the cat in our house is a magician", says P. C. Sorcar Junior.
But it is in him that the inherited art has borne most fruit, spanning the entire world, and giving fresh life to a once neglected art. P. C. Sorcar's mother is Mrs. Basanti Sorcar, a noted philanthropist , who has been a source of courage and inspiration to her son. Coming from a family with a great respect for education, P.C.Sorcar Junior is a double graduate in both Arts and Science and has an M.Sc degree in Applied Psychology from the University of Calcutta
P.C. Sorcar Junior married Jayashree, daughter of , Sri Aroon Kumar Ghosh and Smt. Nilima Devi on May 22, 1972. Her beauty and talents have since lent wondrous support to P. C. Sorcar Junior's performances. As a costume designer or choreographer, or as the beautiful damsel who levitates, disappears, is cut into halves or stretched, Jayashree is a vital part of both, the magician's life and career.
The Present:
The couple have three daughters, Maneka, Moubani and Mumtaz. "My daughters make my art alive", says Prodip Chandra, the family man, who travels with his daughters whenever he can, on his tours. It is inevitable that the three girls show the charm and talent of their parents. They are completing their education, but the ' magnetic field of magic' in which they have been brought up has made them begin to share the stage with their parents occasionally. At least one of them is destined to become a magician, because as P. C. Sorcar Junior says "The Goddess of Magic, Mahamaya Durga wants at least one lady magician like Queen Bhanumati in our family".
Inheritance Made Alive P.C.Sorcar Junior's development as a magician is a continuation of the tradition that made his father his 'guru' or teacher. He began performing in his teens, when he was still in school, forming a group of his own, and presenting some of his own inventive items. His father was so happy with his development that he announced to the World that his 'magical successor' would be his son Prodip Chandra.
In early 1971, Sorcar Jr. had just finished his M.Sc. final examinations, while his father was away in Japan on a tour. At the end of a show at the City Hall of Shibetsu, wherein P.C.Sorcar had declared that it would be his last performance, but the show would go on even if he were to die, he suffered a massive heart attack, and before breathing his last, expressed the wish that his son Prodip should continue his engagements. His death on January 6, 1971 propelled P.C.Sorcar Junior immediately on to the international stage. The disciple son did not even have the time to indulge his grief. When his father was being cremated in Calcutta, he was on stage for his first show in Sapporro, North Japan.
But all those who doubted whether the son would be able to match his father were silenced by the sheer talent, rich presentation, and flamboyant performance of P.C.Sorcar Junior. Today the master magician has set the highest standards, scaling ever new heights. But his acknowledgment of the tradition represented by his father and other ancestors is ever present. "Even in the way I call myself, I never refer to myself except as P.C.Sorcar Junior, to remind myself and others, that there was a Senior", says the caring son.
