Module 1

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1.1 Silence! The Court is in Session: Play by Vijay Tendulkar

The Sonar Moti Tenement (Bombay) Progressive Association is gathering to put American President Lyndon B. Johnson on mock trial for his role in the proliferation of atomic weaponry. The SMTPA is comprised of socially committed activists who try to raise awareness of issues of significance affecting members of their Indian community that might be overlooked in favor of more pressing concerns. As various members of the association arrive, important information about their backgrounds, present circumstances and interrelationship are conveyed. It is also learned that two members of the group Professor Damle and Mr. Rawte were not able to make it to the performance.

Performance time is still a few hours away, so those who have made it decide to pass the time through improvisation. Thought the roles that most of them are slated to play remain essentially unchanged, there will be one very great change: a new defendant will be put on trial. Since recently fired schoolteacher Leela Benare happens to have left the room at this time, the others decide she will be placed on trial. When she returns and discovers what is taking place, she suggests a thievery as a replacement for the crime they have chosen for her: infanticide. The crime was not chosen randomly: the vivacious, early-30’s woman is routinely criticized behind her back by the others for her “unconventional” lifestyle. Soon enough, it becomes pointedly apparent that there may be little about this trial of Benare that is purely random.

The very purpose of the SMTPA is indicative of the collective opinion the members hold of themselves. They have ordained themselves as an entity charged with educating the more ignorant members of the community; more than just educating them, guiding them to a more elevated understanding of social causes. This elevated opinion of themselves darkly reveals itself as leaning more toward enjoying being judgmental of others than in bringing others up to equal standing. When Balu Rokde offers the enticing new information that in reality he did once see Benare inside the home of Professor Damle (who is there to take part in the performance, remember), the mock part of the trial begins to blend with real life as the predatory nature of the others toward even each other takes over as a local villager named Samant fills in for the missing Mr. Rawte. Samant fabricates a theory to explain what Rokde actually witnessed that day: Benare was having an affair with Damle and wound up pregnant, a scenario which, of course, would naturally end committing the infanticide of which she is charged. The only problem is that Benare’s response to Samant’s entirely constructed fiction is too emotionally overwrought to be acting and that, in fact, Samant has entirely by accident hit upon a real-life truth.

At that point where it seems that an unexpected and ugly truth has inserted itself too deeply into the proceedings to turn back, the mock trial takes on an increasingly dramatic tone. When Benare attempts to flee the room, she finds it has been locked from the outside, trapping her in the role of criminal defendant until the mercy of the others allows their compassion to overcome their emotional greed. The trial continues with testimony from two of the men that Benare pleaded with them to marry her and help protect the child from being raised illegitimately, but that both men rejected her.

Sukhatme takes on the role of the prosecutor in the mock trial, but unknowingly to the audience, he has already made his case against the defendant. It was Sukhatme who originated the suggestion that Benare be the member of the troupe put on trial in the first place. Thus equipped, it should by the time he begins his argument come as little surprise that Sukhatme goes a little overboard in painting Benare as the very embodiment of the corruption of the institution of motherhood. Presiding over the trial is the status-conscious Mr. Kashikar whose maternal-but-childless wife is also a member of the group. In addition to being judge, however, Kashikar breaks with precedent, tradition and convention by temporarily putting aside his judicial robes and taking the stand as witness whereupon he identifies he feels freed of duty and impartiality to the extent that he collective castigates all adult unmarried girls as a “sinful canker on the body of society” before providing yet more damning evidence Benare.

The prosecution having rested, the trial is turned over to the defense to call witnesses. There is just one problem: all three witnesses that could possibly be called to refute any of the allegations being made against Benare just so happen to not be present. The prosecuting attorney goes on to give his closing argument and then, at the judge’s request, goes on to present closing arguments for the defense. Judge Kashikar inquires if the Benare has anything at all to say in her defense.

Benare proceeds to give a long speech, now realizing that every single aspect of her life she thought could remain a secret has been exposed, in which she confesses all. Speaking from the heart, she is accusatory as well as contrite, explanatory as well as metaphoric. At the conclusion of his emotionally intense monologue, the judge delivers the guilty verdict as well as the punishment: the illegitimate fetus growing inside Benare is to be aborted. She collapses to the floor.

Suddenly, drama is broken by the sound of the locked door being opened by the villagers who have come to the mock trial of President Johnson. As if coming out of dream state, the actors on stage slowly remove the trappings of their “characters” and become their real selves again. As Benare remains unmoving on the floor, they try to persuade her that it was all nothing but a game and not to be taken seriously, but she remains lifeless. The others leave her there as they wander off to prepare for the scheduled performance until finally the only thing left on stage is her body still crumpled on the floor.