Suhani Shah’s particular brand of staged illusion is ‘mentalism’ or mind-reading. For her third year at Soho Theatre, before heading to Edinburgh’s Fringe Festival, her fan club are out in force for Spellbound 2.0 to see her perform the impossible. Originally from Rajasthan, she’s India’s only female magician and the show opens with a film of her being feted by Bollywood stars and Indian cricketers alike including Ravi Shastri, Salman Khan, R. Madhavan, Kareena Kapoor Khan and Nushrratt Bharuccha
Shah’s gender makes her unusual in this world and she brings confident glamour to her magic act. Like a South Asian Betty Boop, she sashays across the stage, head cocked, hand on hip in a mini skirt, displaying an immaculate pair of high-heeled pins. You wonder if these are the visual distractions every magician needs.
“Are you thinking of the Maldives?” she asks one woman in the audience, located towards the back. “Are you thinking of peaches? The sweet, white ones?” “Is your mother called Alison?” Of course, the answer is nearly always yes, or it would mean the magic wasn’t working. Her audience is bowled over by her supernatural powers as she reads mind after mind with the help of cue cards, a whiteboard and a felt-tip pen.
She uses a blindfold underlaid with chapati dough which apparently makes it impossible to see and yet she replicates (while blindfolded) digits or drawings audience members have randomly committed to a whiteboard. Her personality is part of the magic, it weaves its own charm around her admirers who she reads on many levels.
Shah starts and finishes with ‘Namaste’, a Sanskrit greeting often used in yoga which means, ‘I bow to you.’ She sometimes breaks into Hindi repartee or asides. The audience has a large South Asian component and when questions are shouted out, this pint-sized telepath keeps them in check. “This is not a Q&A. This is a show!” Even when they are called to the stage and she draws out their complex thoughts, she doesn’t invite them to elaborate. “If I am right, just hold up your hand and go back to your seat.”
This is a strange instruction when such an opportunity for personal endorsement is presented. You want to hear the stories, to see the wonder on their faces, the unfurling of an unfathomable mystery. “Some people spread rumours I hire actors but there are no stooges here. I can’t afford them” she insists. But we only have her word for that, and illusionists must rank alongside salesmen when it comes to spinning silky words.
Her cult following can’t believe what they witness and there’s a constant murmur of “No way!” and “Wow!” How she does it is academic and probably irrelevant. People watch magic shows because they want to believe in magic. At a time when most people struggle to believe what they read in the news or anything politicians say, here’s a chance to escape into the belief that thoughts can be drawn like litmus paper by those with rare and inexplicable gifts.
Of course, if Shah could read minds, she would be in great demand by the secret service or special forces. She could make a more lucrative living in interrogation cells, for example. There’s no evidence of great drama or danger in Spellbound 2.0, no big visual excitement. But even though it’s a low-stakes show, it’s still intriguing, perplexing, and entertaining.
She’s a mind reader who normalises her craft and chats to her audience on her own terms while seducing them with a feline magnetism. In the foyer, young men with glittering eyes loiter with intent, desperate for a photograph with the great Suhani Shah. They are spellbound for sure.
Runs until 10 August 10 2024 and then plays at Edinburgh Fringe
The Reviews Hub Score
Intriguing, perplexing, entertaining
