When she was 14, Suhani Shah’s dad suggested she write a book on her experiences as a magician on stage. She was enthused with the idea, but there was a glitch. She did not know how to read or write, as she had dropped out of school in the first grade.
“I worked on my English language, maths and science and only then ventured to write the book,” says Suhani over a Zoom video call amid her eight-city Chamatkar Tour in the country. Her book Unleash Your Inner Power, published by Jaico, became a bestseller, leading her to pen more books parallel to a career as a magician and mentalist.
Now, aged 33, Suhani is India’s one of the first and only female mentalist, mind reader, illusionist and magician. Over the last two decades — starting at the age of six — she has given over 5,000 shows worldwide. She’s the most watched mentalist in the world.
Beyond magic
Suhani Shah who started performing at an early age | Photo Credit: Special arrangement
It seemed fitting that Suhani started the conversation by revealing the difference between a magician and a mentalist. “Every mentalist is a magician. But not every magician is a mentalist. Mentalism is a subgenre of magic. I started my career as an illusionist, and a decade ago, I turned into a mentalist. It’s pretty much like the many branches in journalism - politics, entertainment, sports and others; magic has various branches too.”
Becoming a mentalist was a natural progression in her art form that was triggered at the age of nine when people from her audience started seeking personal help after her show. “They would talk about their illnesses and wanted to know if my magic could cure them. They would want to know the culprits of a robbery in town. Someone brought their child with autism and wanted to know what was happening in his mind. Things like that have been happening with me since a young age. I would tell people that magic is an art form, a trick and not real. I tell them that they believe and think I can cure, but I don’t.”
On stage, Suhani’s magic tricks were on par with the veteran magicians. Her shows in schools, village fairs, parties, and auditoriums across the country made her one of the best illusionist artistes. Her incredible talent for guessing and predicting people’s minds while being blindfolded put her in the league of top mentalists in the world.
Mind games
For Suhani, interacting with her audience led to developing an interest in psychology and human behaviour; she also started giving talks and conducting training programmes in that field. “By the time I was 20, I realised I was involved in two fields - performing arts and psychology. I opened a centre in Goa where people would come to meet me and talk about these things. But I soon realised It was too much. I didn’t want to mess up doing two different things, so at one point I combined the art of magic with psychology, and that came up as mentalism.”
A gainer for Suhani has been her exposure at a tender age. Since the age of seven, performing almost every other day for thousands, travelling overseas and interacting with people helped obtain a perspective of diverse minds. “Worldwide, people will look different, have different cultures and upbringings and opinions, but they are primarily the same. Their insecurities and fears are similar. We are more similar than different. All these observations helped me and made me never go for conventional education. When I hear terms like self-hypnosis or techniques like neuro-linguistic programming, I used to feel surprised that there are degrees and courses for that, whereas I have been practising it all my life.”
Road less travelled
For an Indian kid to deviate from a conventional academic route is not easy unless the parents are willing to make a courageous decision. “My father’s choice was clear: my child sits in a class of 16 or performs in front of 16,000. My mother felt if a person wants to learn, they learn from anywhere. I feel so fortunate to have parents with such open-mindedness and breaking the stereotypes and letting their child follow her path and making sure that it’s happening in the right way.”
Being a mentalist is not a 24/7 job for Suhani; she’s not always probing people’s minds. “It’s a very observant job, but I am not always judging people. Yes, I can gauge certain things instinctively, like when people lie. Certain things are done through techniques and effort. I have friends who see me as an individual rather than a mentalist. I would like them to be honest with me, and I want to have fun with them. So, I have a perfect support system. I am also able to make more authentic relationships and friendships in my life now.”
Travelling with a 30-member team and two truckloads of paraphernalia, the Chamatkar Tour, says Suhani, is a structured show with a lot of drama and is highly engaging. “It gives the audience an immersive experience. The audience changes in every city, but there will also be a repeat audience who come just to see my predictions. So, half of the show gets modified. Every ending will be different with a different prediction from me.”
(The Chamatkar Tour will be held at (October 27, 2023), Pune (October 28 and Mumbai (October 29).
