Overview
- The state information and cultural affairs department has launched a plan to create a dedicated school of magic and a museum, and it formed an advisory committee on Friday to prepare the project outline.
- The committee held its first formal meeting at Kolkata’s Nandan Auditorium, attended by Information and Cultural Affairs Minister Purnima Chakraborty and department secretary Soumitra Mohan.
- Eminent magician P.C. Sorcar (Junior) was named chief adviser of the panel and attended the meeting with family members who are also magicians.
- Officials discussed drafting a curriculum covering technique, stage presentation, sleight of hand and the ‘‘science’’ behind illusions plus the museum’s scope to preserve equipment, costumes and books, but no budget, site or timetable has been announced.
- The plan aims to institutionalize Bengal’s long stage-magic tradition and to give young performers a path to professional training; the Sorcar family’s prominence in the art is part of the initiative’s cultural context and background.