Polemical Issues and Carpe diem in Tendulkar’s Silence! The Court is in Session

Dr. S. B. BiradarDepartment of English

SVM Arts, Science and Commerce College, Ilkal

Vijay Tendulkar (1928-2008)

• Born in lower middle class Brahmin family

• Father a Head Clerk in Orient Longman Publishers

• Vijay a sick child with persistent cough and asthmatic wheezing

• Parents were overprotective

• Favorite child in the family

• Dhondopant his father: an enthusiastic writer, director and actor of Marathi plays

• His father took Vijay to theatres

• Theatre was a magic for Vijay

Vijay Tendulkar (1928-2008)

• His father took him to book shops on Sundays

• Vijay lose himself among the books

• As a student spent most of his time in libraries

• Influenced by Dinkar Mokashi and Vishnu Bokil

• First play Grihasth (1955) in his early twenties (hypocrisy of wealthy exposed)

• Original script writer for Shyam Bengal, Govind Nihalani and Jabbar Patel

• An Island Called Man (1958), Vultures (1972), Kanydaan (1982), A Friend’s Story (1982)

• Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, Padma Bhushan, Katha Chudamani Literary Prize

Polemical Issues in Silence! the Court is in Session

• Pregnant out of wedlock

• Infanticide

• Gender discrimination

• Cruelty in Middle class (social stability)

• Moral conduct of school authorities (moral sanctity)

• Character Assassination

• Moral turpitude/evil quality

• Patriarchal bias

• Justice: an instrument of suppression (legal intigrity)

• Carpe diem: the enjoyment of the pleasures of the moment without concern for the future

Silence! The Court is in Session (1971)

• Recognized as Play of the year 1971

• Source: real life incident (Vile Parle)

• Originally written in Marathi and translated in English by Priya Adarkar

• The title: common register in court

• Absolute authority to pronounce judgment

• Powerful comment on a society with a heavy patriarchal bias

• Justice is an instrument of oppression of women and vulnerable sections of society

• Justice become the face of a very repressive and dehumanized system

• Orthodox society

Silence!...

• Disillusionment in search for individuality by a woman

• The concept of modern woman v/s traditional woman

• Middle class mentality and its pettiness

• The degeneration of dramatic activity (bantering, hostility among each other)

Social Milieu during 1960s

• Rigid rules of Patriarchy

• Leela Benare a middle class woman

• Mumbai based

• No support from family or friends

• Patriarchal Perspectives

Intro of the play

• Sonar Moti Tenement Progressive Association, Mumbai

• Came to suburban village to stage their play

• The trial of American President Johnson for producing nuclear weapons

Tendulkar: Ben Jonson of India

• Characters

• Samant: local Yokel

• Miss Leela Benare: spinster school teacher in her thirties (34)

‘a living woman’

• Mr Kashikar: a pompous social worker, Mr. Prime Objective

• Mrs Kashikar: typical middle class woman

• Balu Rokde: adopted son, ‘Mock Law Court’s factotum’

• Sukathme: a briefless lawyer

• Ponkshe: clerk, ‘scientist’ (failed twice Inter Science Exams)

• Karnik: a part time actor

• Prof Damle and Rawte do not turn up

• Rawte was replaced by Samant

Plot: Exposition

• Leela Benare: First to arrive at the venue of the performance

• Leela was escorted by Samant

• She is full of life and an efficient teacher

• Lighthearted flirtation with Samant

• Few members of the troupe arrived except Professor Damle and Rawte

• Plenty of time at their disposal

• They have practiced it several times earlier

• In order to pass time they decided to play game

• Stage a Mock Trial to familiarize the naïve Samant with the intricacies of court procedure

Plot: Exposition

• Leela Benare goes inside to wash her face

• Others decided to accuse in the mock trial

• Mock trial itself turned into a play within the play

• When Benare returns, the stage is set for her mock trial

• Mock trial on a Social significance, infanticide

• Mr Kashikar is to be the judge

• Sukhatme is counsel for the prosecution and defense

• Ponkshe, Karnik, Balu Rokde Mrs Kashikar and Samant to be the witnesses

• Relationship of Mr and Mrs Kashikar (excahnge of gifts yet quarrel over trivial matters)

Middle: Trial

• Kashikar and Sukhatme addressed the accused as ‘Prisoner Miss Benare’

• She is charged under section 302 for killing a new born child

• IPC 302: Punishment for murder (Whoever commits murder shall be punished with death, or imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine.

• Everyone tries to expose Benare’s personal life as the Trial proceeds

• Benare wants the charge to be changed something like snatching public property

Ending

• Defense of Benare

• End of the mock Trial

• Darkness everywhere light s on Benare with background song

Act wise Understanding Silence!...

Act I

• Benare hurt her finger: caught in the bolt that didn’t slide straight

• Flirting with Samant

• Samant’s marital status

• Miss Leela Benare Job

• “In School, when the first bell rings, my foot’s already on the threshold. I haven’t heard a single reproach for not being on time”

• “My teaching is perfect, I have put whole life into it. I have worn myself to a shadow in this job”

• Benare is disturbed: Enquiry into her conduct from the school authorities

Act I

• The Troupe

• Stage a mock Trial of the American President Johnson “for producing nuclear weapons”

• Benare says “one of the objectives is uplifting the masses”

• Kashikar family is childless

• Adopted Balu Rokhde

• Pokcshe has just aken Inter Science examinatin

• Interaction among the members

• Benare says “Life is not meant for any one else. Its your own life. It’s a very very important thing. Every moment, every bit of it is precious

Act I

Benare: The grass is green

The rose is red

This book is mine

Till I am dead!

After the conversation with Balu Rokde (note down)

I always tell the girls in class, don’t be in a hurry to write downwhat you have hardly heard! First listen … say it to yourselfslowly… send it deep inside you. Then it will stay with you. Itmust mingle with your blood. It will only stay once it’s in yourblood. No one take it from you then or make you forget it!

Act I

“Our feet tread on upon unkown

And dangerous pathways evermore “

(Mrs Shirish Pai’s Marathi Poem)

• Prof Damle not arrived

• He was suppose to attend a symposium in university

• Mrs Khasikar reads cheap thrillers

• Balu has forgotten to bring the Bible and Bhagvadgita instead he brought Oxford English Dictionary

• Play within the play

• Karnik is excited and says “ three cheers for the new idea! In Drama Theory we call this a Visual Enactment”

Act I

The charge

“Miss Leela Benare, you have been arrested on suspicion of a crime of an extremely grave nature, and bought as prisoner before the bar of this court” .

Kashikar: Prisioner Miss Benare, under Section 302 of the Indian Penal code you are accused of the crime of infanticide. Are you guilty of the aforesaid crime”.

Act II

• Socially very Important Charge

Benare though shocked and replied to Sukhatme “Who is serious, I am absolutely lighthearted. I just got a bit serious to create the right atmosphere. For the court, that’s all. Why should I be afraid of a trial like this?”

• Court etiquette

• Arguing about the charge

• Trial begins

• The first witness Pokshe

• Balu’s testimony

• Other witnesses

• The mock trial becomes serious

• Samant as a witness

Act III

• Seriou s mock trial

• Taking the oath

• The Accused Silence

• Mrs Kashikar’s testimony “What else? That’s what happens these days when you get everything without marrying. They just want comfort. They couldn’t care less with responsibility!

• Fresh Accusations again

• Tik 20 Issue

• Attempt of suicide

Act III

• Nanasaheb Shindhe of Bombay Chairman of the education Society conversation with Kashikar

• Nanasaheb over the phone “It is a sin to be pregant before marriage. It would still immoral to let such a woman teach, in such a cindition! There is no alternative this woman must be dismissed.”

• Miss Benare Defense: hardly 14 she fell in love with her uncle

• She dint know what is sin then

• She attempted to die by jumping from the parapet

• Second time she loved a man of intellect

• He betrays her

Act III

• The Sentence

• “Prisoner Miss Benare pay the closest attention. The crimes you have committed are most terrible… the court takes a serious view of your attempt to dynamite all this.”

• Dawn of Reality

Song is played in Benare’s voice softly

Parrot to the sparrow said,

Why, oh why are your eyes so red?

Oh my dear friend what shall I say?

Someone has stolen my nest away…

O sparrow, sparrow, pooor little sparrow

Symbolism

• The door latch hurts her finger:

• tormenters persecute her/ no escape

• Professor Damle

• An evasive lover (double standards of typical middle class man)

• Sparrow and Parrot

• The sparrow symbolizes vigilance, joy, creativity and wisdom. Sparrows are small in size but extremely protective, especially as a clan. Sparrows are constantly busy building nests, foraging for food and protecting their young, and they serve as a reminder that busy hands and minds promote a happy and full life.

• Parrot is truth telling bird, powerful reflection of self

Check your understanding of the play?...

1. Who is the translator of the play Silence! The Court is in Session?2. The play Silence! The Court is in Session originally written in ________3. What is the age of Benare?4. What are the important techniques Tendulkar uses in Silence! The Court

in Session to portray a young woman?5. What are the issues Tendulkar explores in the play Silence! The Court is in

Session?6. Which is the theatre group referred to in the play, Silence! The Court is in

Session?7. What is the theme of the play suppose to perform by ‘The Sonar Moti

Tenement (Bombay) Progressive Association’?8. What does Tendulkar depict in his play Silence! The Court is in Session?9. What is the profession of Benare?10. Who is Mrs Hand that rocks the cradle ? 11. In which office Pokshe works as a clerk?

…1. Priya Adarkar

2. Marathi

3. 30s/34 years

4. Dramatic irony and satire

5. conventions and shameful hypocrisy of the middle-class male-dominated society

the deplorable legal system found in contemporary society

6. The Sonar Moti Tenement (Bombay) Progressive Association

7. on the Trial of American President Lydon B. Johnson on the charge of producing atomic weapons.

8. depicted the plight of a young educated urban woman in male dominated society.

9. School teacher

10. Mrs Kashikar 11. Central Telegraph Office

Thank You