Question- Write a short note on the role of Sukhatme in the mock-trial in Tendulkar's play, Silence! The Court is in Session.

Answer - 

Sukhatme is a lawyer by profession and an amatear actor by choice. In his real life Sukhatme is a total flop as a lawyer. He whiles away his time in the court bar-room driving flies with legal journals and by killing houseflies in his tenement. If any client goes to him, he is sure to get a jail term for he goes dumb before the judge. This is what we learn of Sukhatme from the remarks of miss Benare to Samant. But in the mock court, Sukhatme acquits himself very well. He plays a dual role as the prosecutor and the defence counsel as Prof. Damle who plays the defence counsel is absent. Not only does he take up the responsibility of playing the double role but also he does that very ably. As the public prosecutor he is all alert, very spinted and highly skilful in building up the case against Miss Benare and establishing it through his examination of the witness and finally placing his arguments very powerfully for punishing Miss Benare very severely. As a defence counsed he appears to be exhausted to the dispirited because he knows the case of his client is week. So he appeals to the court to show her mercy for the sake of humanity."

Character Sketch of Miss Lela Benare

Heroine of the play: Leela Benare, the heroine of Vijay Tendulkar's play, Silence! The Court is in Session is the central character of the play. She symbolizes the emancipated modern woman. She is the most important and most powerful female character in the play. The entire play revolves round upon her character. She is young and energetic and fun loving. She is a member of the Sonar Moti Tenement Progressive Association, an amateur dramatic troupe in Bombay. She caricatures her group members to Samant belonging to a suburban village where the group is going to stage a play- The living Low court. She looks at the foibles of her co-artists in a harmless manner to lighten herself. It is through Miss Benare we are introduced to the Kashikars, Sukhatme, Ponkshe, Prof. Damle, Karnik and Balu Rokde. She takes liberties with all her teammates making fun of them and enlivens the atmosphere around her. But unfortunately, she takes them for granted which ultimately boomerange on her.

A talented woman: Benare is a very talented young woman aged thirty four. She is highly sociable and an extrouert. She is frank, bold, assertive and rebellious. She is very cleverly and manipulative at times. As she wants to be alone with Samant she leaves the members of her troupe behind. She likes the handsome young man Samant and makes overtures to him. But the innocent Samant does not understand her motives. To be on guard, Benare also gives up her efforts to bait him, she is a school teacher by profession. As a teacher, she has dedicated herself to the uplift of her words. She has never been wanting in her duties. She has always maintained strict discipline. Her students adore her to the point of making her colleagues and the management jealous of her.

Disciplined and punctual: She tells Samant: "In school when the first bell rings, my foot's already on the threshold. I have not heard a single reproach for not being on time these past eight years. Nor about my teaching. I'm never be hindhand with my lessons! Exercises corrected on time, too not a bit of room for disapproval - I do not give an inch of it to any one!"

But, in spite of all this, the school management is holding an enquiry. It is just because one bit of slander. Benare questions the propriety of her management trying to mix up her personal life with her propriety profession. She feels that they should judge her only as a teacher for she has put her whole life into it. She has warn herself to a shadow in that job. She has never hurt anyone except her own self. She says -

"Who are these people to say what can or can not do? My life is my own - I haven't sold it to anyone for a job! My will is my own, My wishes are my own. No one can kill those-no one! I'll do what I like with myself and my life!"

Though Benare is very much worried about her problem with the management and her personal predicament, she maintains her cool and slips into a playful mood by hiding behind the door with Samant and booing when Sukhatme, Ponkshe and Balu Rokde enter the hall. She exchanges witty remarks and jokes with them. In order to while away the time, she sings songs, recites poems and even offers to tell stories. But her sweetest songs tell us of saddest thoughts.

Victim of Betrayal of Love: Benare's life of love always lends her in sorrow. She is in reality a victim of betrayal in love. Though she is thirty four, she remains a spinster. When she was just fifteen, she fell in love with her maternal uncle who praised her bloom every day. In their strict home, in the prime of her unfolding youth, he was the only one who came close to him. He gave her love when she was hardily fourteen! At her tender age she did not know what sin was. She insisted on marrying him so that she could live her beautiful dream openly. But all her relatives including her mother were against it. And her uncle did not have the courage to marry her. He turned tail and ran. She tried to commit suicide but it failed. Later on, when she grew up, she decided to be careful in her love affair. She fell in love with Prof. Damle for she adored his intellect. But he adored her body and made her pregnant. As he was a family man with children and a reputation to guard, he did not choose to marry her. He threw her like a hot brick.

Concern for the baby: Benare wants to bring up the baby with the protection of a father, home and security. So she tries to woo Ponkshe by meeting him at Udipi restaurant near her school. But Ponkshe turns down the proposal for he does not prefer to be a social reformer by becoming the father of a child born to another man. Then she tries to woo Balu Rokde by telling him that he can become free from the humiliating slavery under Mrs. Kashikar. But Balu too turns down the offer. Then she tries in futile to bait Samant. Her frantic effort to piece her broken love life together to mistaken by traditionalists like Mrs. Kashikar. Mr. Kashikar and Sukhatme for promiscuity. They all look upon Benare as a potential danger to the institution of marriage and the sacred nature of motherhood. They consider that woman is not fit for independence. If she is given independence, she will misuse and abuse it like Benare and spell doom and disaster to society. This is evident from Sukatme's argument against Benare in the court during the mock trial.

A Frank and for thright in argument: Benare is frank and forthright in giving a fitting reply to the charges levelled against her in the court. She tells the judge that life is a very dreadful thing. Life must be hanged. Quoting from Sanskrit she says. Na Jeevan jeevanamarhati, 'Life is not worthy of life'. So she wants the judge to hold an enquiry against life. If possible let him sack life from its job. She asks the judge why they should sack her from her job. She was not sack in her work. She had served her children by putting her whole life into her job. She had taught them well. She knew that life is no honest things. Even one's own flesh and blood does not want to understand one. She taught them beauty; she taught them purity. Though she cried inside, she made them lough. Though she was cracking up with despair, she taught them hope. That being the case she does not understand why they are robbing her of her job, her only comfort.

A votary for independence of women in private life: Again, she fell in love as a grown woman with Prof. Damle. She threw all her heart into it; she thought that would be different. That love was intelligent. It was love for an unusual intellect. It was not love at all it was worship. But she committed the same mistake as before. She offered up her body on the altar of her worship. And her intellectual God. Prof. Damle took the offering and went his way. He did not want her mind, or her devotion- he did not care about them! He was not a God. He was just a man for whom everything was of the body, for the body! she adds that the body is a traitor ! And now it carries within it the witness of that blissful time a tender little bud of what will be a lisping, laughing, dancing little life her son - her whole existence ! She wants her body then for him-for him alone, he must have a mother a father to call his own a house to be looked after he must have a good name !

An epitome of travails of human life: It is interesting to note that the central character of Miss Benare came to be developed by Tendulkar through the contents of a beautiful poem's by Mrs. Shirish Pai. The poem highlights the travails of human life. Miss Benare's definition of life in the third Act of the play almost nearly sums the theme of the poem. She tries to suppress the overweighing betrayals and teach only hope to her students. While her heart is breaking with sorrow she teaches them of joy, beauty and purity. She has never let the poison life consuming her slowly affect the tender children left to her care. She lets herself betrayed by her own co-artists without bet-raying any of them. In spite of Damle's irreparable damage to her love life, she does not like him to be called a scoundrel. As given out in the poem; Miss Benare's life proves to be a battle where defeat is destined as the end.

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