Magic in Chennai: Meet magician Dhayaa, who impressed Vijay, Rajinikanth

Magician Dhayaa
| Photo Credit: R. Ravindran

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.

Magician Dhayaa
| Photo Credit:
RAVINDRAN R

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.

His role model, however, is the late Channing Pollock, the American magician-actor who was well-known for his sleight of hand and card tricks. “I chanced upon a performance of his from the black and white TV era when I was young, and was blown away. I had never seen something like that, and that performance sowed the seeds inside me to take to this craft full-time.”

Dhayaa has also worked on Tamil films; he taught Tamil actor Vijay a cool coin flip trick that he employed in 2017 Tamil film Bhairavaa. But one of the biggest moments for him was being called to the residence of Tamil superstar Rajinikanth a few years ago for a performance.

“I walked in to his house, and he welcomed me, saying, ‘I’m your fan, sir’. I was speechless.”

Abbas Cultural presents Dhayaa’s magic show on May 21 (Sunday); two shows at 4pm and 7pm, at Vani Mahal, T Nagar. For tickets, visit venue or call 9710633633, or visit bookmyshow.com