Magician Muthukad makes a Minister vanish

Agriculture Minister K.P. Mohanan played the willing participant in magician Gopinath Muthukad’s public performance

Magician Gopinath Muthukad had chained Agriculture Minister K.P. Mohanan inside a metal box at the Government Women’s College auditorium in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday. Mr. Mohanan was found missing from the box a few minutes later, only to reappear on a screen, talking to the magician over phone from his official residence. Photo:S.Mahinsha

A Minister pulled off the vanishing act, quite literally, on Tuesday afternoon. Agriculture Minister K.P. Mohanan played the willing participant yet again in one of magician Gopinath Muthukad’s public performances at the Government College for Women auditorium.

The Minister was chained inside a metal cage in full view of the audience. The box was closed, the straight-faced Minister locked inside, and a few dramatic minutes later when the box was opened, Mr. Mohanan was gone.

It was earlier, in 2012, that the Minister was chosen from the crowds to check the locks of Mr. Muthukad’s contraptions. This time, however, he played the insider, probably the only one to figure out how the trick worked, aside from the master magician himself and his crew.

At home

It appeared like a classic vanishing trick, with an amused audience waiting for the Minister to turn up, probably behind or outside the auditorium. Then, Mr. Muthukad, in his typical theatrical style, made a phone call apparently to the Minister, who materialised on a screen, talking on the phone seated at his desk at his residence at Vazhuthacaud.

Mr. Muthukad had yet again managed to pull off a surprise. In those brief couple of minutes, Mr. Mohanan had been miraculously transported back home.

The programme was held as part of the inauguration of the Magic Planet website.