Unit VI : Drama

Chapter - 23
Silence! The Court is in Session

- Vijay Tendulkar

Question- Attempt a critical appreciation of Vijay Tendulkar's play, Silence! The Court is in Session.

Or
Attempt a critical assesment of Vijay Tendulkar as a dramatist as seen through his play, Silence! The Court is in Session.

Answer - 

Background of the Play Based on real incident Vijay Tendulkar's shantata: Court chalu the (1967) is a well-known Marathi play. Priya Adarkar translated it as Silence! The court is in Session (1978). As is usual with him, the experience of the play originates not from a concept but a real incident. In this particular case, the motivation came from an amateur group of players on its way to stage a mock trial in vile parle, the suburb where Tendulkar lives. The bits of conversation he heard as he guided the members to their destination provided the ground work for the play. Tendulkar wrote this play for Rangayan at the behest of his friends. Arvind and Sulabha Deshpande.

But in another sense, as pointed out by Priya Adarkar the play appears uncharacteristics of Tendulkar. In his earlier works he had dwelt on the distress of the middle class with a degree of sympathy, bordering on sentiment, with Shantata come parting of ways. The change is difficult to explain. The change was possibly the result of a deep personal experience. For, on the one hand, it unleashed characters (Benare, Sakharam, Ghoshiram) in a state of collision with accepted norms and on the other hand, it revealed ineffectual middle class types with an ugly, brutal sneer lurking under the surface.

The Dramatic edge of the play: The madras player at the Museum Theatre first present silence: The court is in session in English. Ammu Mathew directed it. The play is conceived as a game and the idea that all that is happening on the stage is part mock and part earnest gives the play its 'theatrical' edge. The mock-element pervades through and through. What we are witnessing is a mere enactment of what is rehearsal of sorts of nothing more than a mock trial to be staged later in the day. The game sequence lifts the performance somewhat since it affers so much scope for unconstrained. Physical movement, for fun. Even so, it is, for the most part, little more than an inset. But in Shantata the play and its structure revolve wholly round the idea of a game and include the essential ingredient of 'reversal' Benae, who is on the offensive in the beginning, finds herself trapped at the close of the play. The harmless door- latch, which hurts her finger and draws her blood (as she enters the place with Samant) later shuts the group in and in fact, takes on the dimension of a blockade. The claustrophobic atmosphere inside becomes the kind of setting where social marks are stripped off.

Character's real identities: When the members of troupe enter the room, we half anticipate banter and cordiality, as among friends. There is banters no doubt, but alongside runs a strong streak of pettiness. Perhaps for them theatre activity has reduced itself to an escape from personal failures : Benare expose that sukhatme, in real life, is a lawyer without a brief; here he will be seen exploding to parade his knowledge of the legal process. Sukhatme for his part, riles at karnik's so called grasp of 'intimate' theatre. Supported by Balu Rokde, he has a dig at the unfortunate Ponkshe who has, actually failed his Inter Science Exams but professes during the trail to be a scientific genius. Ponkshe, in turn, mocks at Rokde for his slavish dependence on the Kashikars. And the group units of ridicule the absurd gestures of mutual devotion made by the couple and also their childlessness. The whole lot of them fries to crucify Benare but at least in the first half of the play, she is able to out smart them. The name of Prof. Damle, who does not turn up, hovers in the air, giving rise to some inexplicable uneasiness.

Tendulkar levelled as angry young man : With the production of Shantata in 1967, Tendulkar became the eye of a storm. He had already earned the name 'the angry young man of Marathi Theatre'. But now he was definitely marked out as a rebel against the established values of fundamentally orthodox society. The theatre group in Shantata (silence) that comes to perform at a Suburban village of Bombay is a miniature cross-section of middle class society The members are representative of its different sub strata. Their characters, dialogues. Gestures and even mannerisms reflect their petty. Marginal existences filled with disappointment and inhibited desires that find expression in their malicious and spiteful attitudes towards their fellow beings. Leela Benare, the central Character of the play, is the only exception.

Miss Benare's Private life exposed: As Benare possesses a natural lust for life and a spontaneous vitality, she ignores social norms and dicates. Being different form the others, she is easly is dated and made the victim of a cruel game, cunningly maneuvered by her fellow actors. During the so-alled 'game' which is meaningful garbed in the form of a mock- trial, Miss Benare's private life is exposed and publicly dissected, exposing her illicit love affair with professor Damle, a married man with a family resling in her pregnancy. Professor Damle is significantly absent at the trial it denotes his total disowning of responsibility, either social or moral, for the whole situation into. which he was driven Miss Benare. During the trial, he is summoned merely as a witness while Benare remains the prime accused as the unwed mother of his illegitimate child. Strangely enough the accusation of infranticide brought against her at the begnning of the trial turns into verdict at the end. Mainly because contemporary insular Indian society cannot allow the birth of a child out of wedlock. This very reversal of the 'authorities' exposes the basic hypocrisy and double standards on which our society is established.

Depiction of Psychological violence. The violence that we would notice in Tendulkar's later plays (like Gidhade, Sabharam and Gharshiram) already rais's its hood in this play. In the persecution of Miss Benare, The helpless woman, a fierce psychological violence become abvious. The latent sadism of the characters of sukhatme of Mr. and Mrs. Kashikar, of Ponkshe. Karnik or even, Rokde comes to the fore during the process of the trial. In depicting these characters, Tendulkar has explored their psyche to the extent of revealing the hidden sense of failure pervading their lives namely the inefficiency of Sukhatme as a lawyer, the childlessness of the Kashikar couple, the non-fulfillment of Ponkshe's dreams to become a scientist, the vain attempts of Karnik to be a successful actor and the spinelessness of Rokde to attain an independent, adult existance. The figure of the simple hearted villager, samant, is adeptly Randled by Tendulkar to offset the complexities of the urbane characters.

Benare's Soliloquy is like Nora's declaration Leela Benare's defence of herself against the attack of the guardians of social norms in a long soliloquy has become famous in the history of contemparary Marathi theatre. Benare's monologue in this play is reminiscent of Nora's declaration of Independence is Ibsen's play: A Doll's House. But it looks the note of protest that characterizes the speech of Ibsen's heroine. It is more of a self- justification than an attack on society's hyprorisises. It is poignant sensitive and highlights the susceptibility of women in our society.

A Three-Act play: Tendulkar's Silence: "The court is in Session' is a play which consists of three acts. It has elaborate stage direction which enables the action of the play very lively. The group of actors is very small consisting of a few witnesses, a judge, his wife, an advocate who plays a dual role as the counsel for the defence and the crown a servant and the accused herself. The language of the play is very supple and the style very impressive. But for a few soliloquies, dialogues are very engaging and pointed enough to suit the atmosphere of the play. There is plenty of humour, banter, jibes and counter jibes, satire and irony. The mock trial of Benare which is carried through a light hearted atmosphere in the beginning slowly becomes surcharged with cynicism, pettiness and sadism by exposing the private life of the accused and pinning her down in the name of social justice and moral code. She is first accused of infanticide by the court but the very same court sentences her to destroy the child in her womb as she was unwed begot it out of illicit love. Thus the play exposes the social hypocrisy and its dubious double standards. Which offer no. protection to women. While Benare is punished for bearing and illegitimate child out of wedlock. Prof. Damle, a married man with family who is responsible for Benare becoming pregnant is left untouched: The play is well structured and the acts leads us from one to the other naturally. There is sudden shift in mood and tempo and like Benare we are also suddenly taken unawares. The play, no doubt, is a feather to the cap of Tendulkar.

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